Sustainable Solutions
14 May 2019
At the global level, three of every four jobs are related to water in some way. The 2016 World Water Development Report examines the links between water and jobs, employment and economic development. The key findings of the report are summarised below.
The most water-intensive sectors are agriculture, fishing and forestry, and they alone provide employment for 1 billion people. Water scarcity and increasingly difficult access to water resources eliminate water-intensive professions and they may hinder economic growth in the coming years. Efforts must be made in order to ensure that the regions impacted are able to adapt to increasing water scarcity, thereby preventing a crisis in local employment and its consequences associated with trade and migration.
Access to suitable drinking water and domestic, school and workplace infrastructure for the separate treatment of human waste result in more efficient employees in the labour market in better health condition, with generally higher qualifications. Non-sustainable water management jeopardises the hard-earned successes in eliminating poverty and creating jobs. Greater emphasis must be placed on understanding that water resources, the water infrastructure and associated services have a comprehensive role in economic growth and job creation, and that sustainable planning must take those aspects into account.
Investment in water infrastructure can be implemented exceptionally cost-efficiently, while they also have a positive impact on many sectors of the economy. Investment creating jobs in water resource management, water supply and public sanitation services have a high return on investment and an additional significant multiplicative effect on job creation in other sectors. Long-term planning and efficient financing are indispensable in sophisticated water management in order to actually achieve the benefits in job creation, economic growth and other, associated social and economic areas.
Climate change is exacerbating the problem of access to water, and unavoidably eliminates some jobs. The transition to a greener economy and the development of environment-friendly technologies has a beneficial effect on employment and on the creation of ethical jobs. Innovative learning methods and relevant professional and scientific education are exceptionally important for reinforcing the system of institutions and in developing jobs in all sectors associated with water.
The World Water Development Report is available on the UNESCO website.
The design and implementation of complex water engineering solutions for developing countries has always been and still is a distinguished area of Hungary’s international cooperation. Hungarian experts have several success stories from over the years in providing solutions in – amongst others – water management, well drilling and in irrigation.
S-Metalltech 98 Ltd founded in 1998 works on one hand as a R&D workshop for universities and industrial companies and on the other hand as a manufacturing base of special materials applied in the field of environmental protection, electrical industry, automotive industry and nuclear reactor technology – cooperating with many of home and foreign partners.
The Public Relations Directorate of the University of Szeged has announced that a system for forecasting precipitation and flash floods is being implemented in the Hungarian–Serbian border region. The project will provide valuable assistance for preventing damage in the future.
The water crisis – that is the theme of the year’s most important event in Hungarian diplomacy, the Budapest Water Summit to be held on 15-17 October. Water shortages and the severe pollution of water resources are hazards that many hundreds of millions of people face – preventing the catastrophe is everyone’s shared task and responsibility.
The Sustainable Development Goals – adopted in the Summit of Prime Ministers and Heads of State between 25 and 27 September 2015 – are based on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It is a necessity to pay more attention to the ever increasing pollution of the waters. Conventional waste water treatments are not suitable to remove all the incoming pollutants in the treatment plants. That is the reason why Nyírségvíz Zrt. has started a development program.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have produced a water management manual based on the principles of green infrastructure. The purpose of the publication is to popularise the solutions, and to present efficient and sustainable projects already in operation that use green or hybrid (traditional – gray and natural – green) infrastructural solutions in the field of water management.
There is no life without water – this is an unquestionable truth for everybody, but has anyone ever thought of the fact that without water there is no development, either? Talking either about the basic fact that water is essential for the development of plants, or the ingenious inventions of later ages, we have to admit that water significantly determines our lives.
The purpose of the document entitled Groundwater Governance – A Global Framework for Action is to make the importance of sustainable groundwater governance clear to political decision-makers.
