About PCCP

In the past hundred years, the world population has tripled while world demand for water has increased seven-fold. The signs of a looming water crisis are evident. Since water is essential to every aspect of life, this crisis affects everything - from health to human rights, the environment to the economy, poverty to politics, culture to conflict. Just as water defies political boundaries and classification, the crisis is also well beyond the scope of any individual country or sector and cannot be dealt with in isolation. The need for integrated, cooperative solutions is particularly urgent in the 263 river basins that are shared by two or more states, in which nearly half the territory and population of the world are located.

The Hague Ministerial Declaration, signed in March 2000, identified seven key challenges for achieving water security. These challenges provide the context for the UN-wide World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).

UNESCO and Green Cross International contributed from 2001 to 2003 to this international initiative by jointly examining the potential for shared water resources to become a catalyst for regional peace and development through dialogue, co-operation and participative management of river basins.

A growing number of states are experiencing permanent water stress, yet in most cases, mechanisms and institutions to manage disputes over water resources are either absent or inadequate. Competition over this precious resource could increasingly become a source of tension - and even conflict - between states and sectors. But history has often shown that the vital nature of freshwater can also be a powerful incentive for co-operation; it can compel stakeholders to reconcile their diverging views, rather than allow opposing interests to escalate into harmful confrontations which could jeopardize water supplies.

Thus, UNESCO has launched the project "From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential"s (PCCP) to address the challenge of shared water resource management primarily from the point of view of governments, and to develop decision-making and conflict prevention tools for the future.

The "Water For Peace" project initiated by Green Cross - developed with the input of civil society in several international basins - aimed to enhance the awareness and participation of local authorities and the public in water conflict resolution and integrated management by facilitating more effective dialogue between all stakeholders.

The joint PCCP: Water for Peace programme addressed the obstacles, identified the incentives and promoted the means to achieving the integrated, equitable and sustainable management needed to make international watercourses natural thoroughfares for stability and sustainable development across the world. The two components of the joint programme were entirely complementary.

By joining forces and mutually supporting each other, UNESCO and Green Cross reached a wider constituency and forged more effective links between and among governments and local authorities, the private sector, academics and scientists, and civil society in the search for ways to move from Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential, and to encourage shared Water to become an avenue for Peace.