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E/CN.17/1998/7/Add.3 |
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
20 April-1 May 1998
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
Economic and Social Council
Commission on Sustainable Development
Sixth session
20 April-1 May 1998
Progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action
for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States
Report of the Secretary-General
Addendum
Freshwater resources in small island developing States *
(* The present report was prepared by the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat in accordance with arrangements
agreed to by the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development; it is the
result of consultation and information exchange between United Nations
agencies, interested government agencies and a range of other institutions and
individuals.)
Contents
Paragraphs Page
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3 3
II. Issues facing small island developing States
in sustainable management and use of freshwater
resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18 3
A. The knowledge base . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3
B. Hydro-meteorological uncertainties . . . . . 5 3
C. Limited water storage capacity . . . . . . . 6-7 3
D. Pollution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10 4
E. Financing and regulating water supply and
sanitation utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-12 4
F. Demands of irrigated agriculture . . . . . . 13 4
G. Coping with the demands of tourism and
industrial development . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5
H. Implementation of integrated management and
environmental protection . . . . . . . . . . 15-16 5
I. Human resources needs. . . . . . . . . . . . 17 5
J. Public awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 5
III. Regional cooperation in sustainable management
and use of freshwater resources. . . . . . . . . 19-20 5
IV. Activities of the United Nations system in
support of small island developing States. . . . 21-26 6
A. United Nations support . . . . . . . . . . . 21-24 6
B. Funds and programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-26 6
V. Recommendations on proposed activities for
freshwater resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-33 7
A. Enhancing integrated planning and management 27 7
B. Promoting technical cooperation among small
island developing States . . . . . . . . . . 28 7
C. Promoting policies encouraging efficient
management and use of existing water
resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 7
D. Promotion of techniques and methodologies
appropriate for small island developing
States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-32 7
E. The island systems management approach . . . 33 7
I. Introduction
1. Small islands have limited options when developing
their freshwater resources. The relatively short length of
surface water circulation in small islands limits the methods
available to utilize them. Groundwater occurrences are
highly dependent on regular recharge events. The
geophysical settings of many small island developing states
leave them vulnerable not only to extreme climatological
and seismic events but more critically to periods of low
recharge and adverse environmental impacts, including
pollution, saline intrusion, soil erosion and mass wasting.
On volcanic piles dominated by rapid baseflow recession
and groundwater fracture flow, on atoll islands and on
coastal aquifers with thin freshwater lenses floating above
seawater, limits in terms of water quantity and quality can
be reached very quickly in periods of low recharge.
2. The relative fragility of the hydrological cycles on
small island developing States means that the evaluation,
planning and development of freshwater resources has to
be approached with special care to work within these
hydro-environmental limits. The prevention of saline intrusion is
a case in point: small changes in freshwater table elevations
from excessive abstraction can lead to wholesale upcoming
of saline water into coastal aquifers and freshwater lenses,
effectively removing large sections of aquifers from the
available water resource base.
3. The issue of water resources in small island
developing States involves many of the same problems that
face developing countries in general, including inadequate
management frameworks and resources, both human and
financial. However, other issues unique to small island
developing States, notably their highly constrained
freshwater resource base and the patterns of development
on limited habitable land, pose particular challenges for
freshwater resources management.
II. Issues facing small island developing
States in sustainable management
and use of freshwater resources
A. The knowledge base
4. Obtaining detailed knowledge of the freshwater
resource base in many small island developing States is
hampered not only by finance and technical capacity but
also by the technically challenging physical settings and
often extremely difficult access to conducting baseline
research and investigation. Those conditions are in many
ways unique to small island developing States, particularly
in the case of groundwater resources. In the limestone and
volcanic terrains of small island developing States,
groundwater may only be available in fracture systems that
are difficult to exploit and whose reliability is difficult to
assess. Even conducting surface geophysical surveys and
drilling is demanding, and the costs and logistics of
thorough groundwater exploration and development are
very high and an obstacle to development.
B. Hydro-meteorological uncertainties
5. The dependence on regular recharge events to
maintain surface-water flows and the integrity of aquifer
replenishment implies that sustainable operational
management of small island developing States freshwater
resources requires constant supervision, sometimes on a
daily basis, such as in times of low rainfall or for freshwater
lens exploitation. Although the range of meteorological
variability can be expected to increase as climate changes,
the imperative is not to understand climate change as such
but rather to find operational methods to manage freshwater
resources under conditions of increased variability and
range. However, the financial and human resource
constraints in many small island developing States often
preclude data acquisition and progressive approaches to
resource conservation and management. Indeed, routine
monitoring of catchment and aquifer status is the exception
rather than the rule in many small island developing States,
where such capacity constraints are binding.
C. Limited water storage capacity
6. Despite the relatively high rainfall that they receive,
many small island developing States often have few or no
permanent streams, lakes or springs. They also have a
limited capacity to store water for use during the dry season.
In fact, building reservoirs in small island developing
States, even when land is available, is fraught with complex
geotechnical and hydraulic problems. In addition, the
combination of high rainfall intensities, steep topography
and short river channels requires structures and spillways
to accommodate flash floods, and easily erodible soils can
cause rapid siltation of reservoirs, further decreasing their
live storage capacity.
7. As a result, many small island developing States
depend heavily on regularly recharged groundwater
resources. On atolls and in coastal aquifers, such resources
often exist in the form of freshwater "lenses" that effectively
sit on higher density saline water. Such lenses have to be
carefully skimmed with low-yielding pumps, taking account
of tidal effects. Water withdrawals at rates that exceed
recharge can result in upcoming of the underlying saline
water, effectively destroying the freshwater lens. In the case
of groundwater flow through massive fractured systems,
horizontal galleries are often used as collectors but they
need to intersect a certain number of productive fractures.
D. Pollution
8. Pollution of surface and groundwater by domestic
sewage and industrial effluents is rapidly degrading the
water resource base of many small island developing States.
Not only is regulation of such waste disposal difficult to
achieve, but small island developing States also face
particular problems in installing sewage and sewage
treatment infrastructure. Steep, unstable terrain on volcanic
islands makes the construction and maintenance of sewage
mains difficult, and the low topography of atoll islands
makes installation of conventional gravity systems almost
impossible. Many rural areas have no choice but to resort
to pit latrines. In addition, small island developing States
are especially vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters
(e.g., cyclones, earthquakes), which can damage their sewer
and related water systems, thereby polluting both surface
and groundwater resources.
9. All countries experience problems in disposing of
solid wastes. This problem is exacerbated in small island
developing States by a limited spatial area and vulnerable
groundwater resources, making the option of landfill
disposal unsustainable over the long term. Small island
developing States also often have high population densities
located on the less steeply sloping lands along their
coastlines, which increases the susceptibility of coastal
water to pollution. Waste minimization and recycling can
offer some scope for reducing groundwater pollution by
reducing the dependence on landfills.
10. The disposal of partially treated or untreated domestic
and industrial effluents in the sea has been a standard
practice for many small island developing States. When
biological waste predominated, such disposal did not pose
too many problems as long as the discharge outlets were
correctly designed and maintained. Indiscriminate disposal
into near-shore environments with poor flushing to the open
sea has reduced coastal water quality, particularly near large
coastal lagoon settlements. However, as chemical and
organic pollutants become more pervasive, the impact on
marine environments is becoming evident, and long-term
accumulation in marine ecosystems is threatening
biodiversity and the local fishing industries upon which
many small island developing States are highly dependent.
E. Financing and regulating water supply
and sanitation utilities
11. Achieving economies of scale in providing water
supply and sanitation services is difficult under the physical
and socio-economic conditions of many small island
developing States. The financing and management of water
supply and sanitation utilities to service growing
populations and tourist facilities is difficult when
concentrations of population and the sources of water are
small and widely dispersed. For instance, ring mains along
accessible coastal zones may be the only options in many
cases but must have long stretches and would be
prohibitively expensive to install and maintain. Equally, the
procurement of water-related equipment is high, given high
transport costs and little chance to negotiate bulk discounts.
For moderately populated islands, the overheads associated
with running water services are particularly high and the
consumer base often so poor that setting tariffs at levels that
would recover the cost of the water services can prove
difficult.
12. The regulation of water and sewage utilities to ensure
adequate conformity to public health guidelines and the
achievement of financial sustainability is difficult. The
scope for setting realistic performance targets and providing
appropriate incentives is extremely limited when the
financial and operational base is so small.
F. Demands of irrigated agriculture
13. The importance of irrigated agriculture at present and
in the future should not be underestimated. With transport
costs high, pressure to grow market crops raises water
demands for irrigated horticulture and agriculture. Such
bulk water demands are made on an already limited resource
base, and often compete with demand for raw water for
potable supplies. The expansion of irrigated agriculture is
already polluting local surface and groundwater sources as
fertilizers and pesticides are applied in increasing amounts.
G. Coping with the demands of tourism and
industrial development
14. High water consumption by tourists and consequent
production of wastewater, particularly in coastal settings,
poses problems for liquid and solid waste disposal on
coastal aquifers or atoll freshwater lenses. Indeed, the
marketing of small island developing States as "sun, sea and
sand" paradise has resulted in many hotels being built on
or near beach areas, thereby concentrating waste-producing
establishments near coastal waters. Similarly, growing
industrial activities are usually occurring in the coastal
centres. On account of weak or absent standards and/or
waste-disposal facilities, the environmentally sustainable
disposal or treatment of wastes, particularly liquid wastes,
has in several cases been left to the builders or operators of
the hotel establishments and industrial facilities themselves,
often with little success. In view of water scarcity, there is
also pressure to import energy-intensive desalination plants,
notably using reverse osmosis, to supply hotels and
processing industries, such as breweries and fish-processing
plants.
H. Implementation of integrated
management and environmental
protection
15. The difficulty of implementing drainage basin controls
and environmental protection, coupled with economic
development (e.g., tourism, agriculture and industry) can
severely reduce the spatial extent of drainage basins that
furnish freshwater supplies. In the Caribbean, for example,
expansion of banana cultivation has reduced protected
catchment areas. Many islands that derive their water from
filtered intakes in the upper catchments of radial streams
have major erosion problems in catchment areas, mainly
because of ad hoc land development and poorly maintained
roads. Equally, municipal well fields are compromised by
pit-latrine development in the localized borehole
catchments.
16. To date, many small island developing States
management and regulatory regimes have not adequately
considered the dynamics and integrated nature required to
address island hydro-systems. The sectoral approach to
management has not proven adequate in addressing a variety
of vital development and environmental issues, particularly
public health and environmental sanitation. It also does not
adequately consider other public or private-sector
involvement, thereby minimizing the role of communities
in the decision-making process.
I. Human resources needs
17. For many SIDS, the technical and scientific data are
either missing or inadequate, because of shortages of needed
expertise to collect and analyse them. In fact, the population
of many small island developing States is too small to
justify the establishment of sufficiently advanced technical
institutions, resulting in a shortage of trained technical and
other needed expertise for many small island developing
States. Thus, water projects are often implemented without
accurate knowledge of the availability and sustainability of
water resource systems.
J. Public awareness
18. There is much evidence that indicates that the level
of awareness about water resource issues is very low in
small island developing States. Demand management is
sometimes rendered ineffectual when cultural expectations
and habitual practices linked to water prove difficult to
change in times of increased demand and more severe
patterns of drought. However, the relatively small size and
the spatial concentration of the populations in many small
island developing States can make the task of public
education and outreach more manageable. The potential
benefit of such public awareness programmes can be very
high.
III. Regional cooperation in sustainable
management and use of freshwater
resources
19. The benefits of pooling experience and expertise in
freshwater resource management are clear. Inter-island
associations to promote such sharing of experiences and
provide a degree of leverage in procuring equipment and
services have been set up to do just that, and can involve not
only island-to-island links but also triangular links with
developed countries through bilateral and multilateral
assistance.
20. A regional water supply and sanitation project in the
Caribbean was started in 1979 and operated in the region
for more than 10 years. The presence of the project in the
islands for prolonged periods and the exploration,
assessment and planning of water resources that the project
carried out attracted a great deal of external support for
improving water supply in all the participating countries.
At the end of the regional project, part of its equipment and
library was transferred to Caribbean Environment Health
Institute and part to the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology
and Hydrology, which two regional institutions continue to
carry out together many of the activities of the regional
project. A twin project in the Pacific was subsequently
initiated in 1986, and continues under the auspices of the
South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission. The Project
has assisted all 15 island countries of the South Pacific, and
has dealt with many of the above-mentioned problems. It
administered, ran and technically supported 15 country
projects in six countries.
IV. Activities of the United Nations
system in support of small island
developing States
A. United Nations support
21. To continue providing assistance to the developing
countries, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific published technical guidelines in support of
national efforts in (a) sustainable development of water
resources (Guidelines on water and sustainable
development: principles and policy options), issued in
August 1997, and (b) water-related disaster reduction and
management (Guidelines and manual on land-use planning
and practices in watershed management and disaster
reduction), issued in October 1997. The guidelines were
subsequently distributed to member countries, including
small island developing States.
22. The post-United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development policy of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) is consistent with the urgent need to
take actions to support the sustainable development of small
island developing States, particularly for the
implementation of the Programme of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States. Through its Industry and Environment Programme
Activity Centre, UNEP has provided assistance for the
environmentally sustainable management of hotels. The
experience gained will also be useful in the forthcoming
UNEP/World Tourism Organization conference on
sustainable tourism in small island developing States, to be
held in September 1998. Through its International
Environment Technology Centre, UNEP is cooperating in
regional exercises, including small island developing States,
to prepare regional source books on technologies addressed
to augmenting existing water supplies. The source books
represent an important contribution to ongoing efforts to
address water scarcity, especially household water security.
23. The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), with the technical assistance of the United Nations
Secretariat (former Department for Technical Cooperation
and Development, currently the Department of Economic
and Social Affairs), has helped Cape Verde to prepare a
national water master plan and the Comoros with the
delicate construction and operation of wells tapping the
coastal aquifers for drinking water supply. The same two
United Nations bodies have initiated and implemented
regional projects for water in the Pacific and Caribbean
islands.
24. The cross-cutting character of disaster reduction, as
defined in the International Decade for Natural Disaster
Reduction, provides an effective link between various
strategy objectives of sustainable development, such as
freshwater resources, taking into account the particular
needs of small island developing States. With regard to
water, disaster reduction activities can contribute to the
sustainable development of small island developing States
through, inter alia, an accurate assessment of available
freshwater resources and of the natural-hazard-induced risk
for water infrastructure.
B. Funds and programmes
25. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is currently
supporting projects related to sustainable management and
the use of large marine ecosystem. Within that context,
UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank are collaborating in
assisting small island developing States within the GEF
framework, including efforts at the regional level to
facilitate the environmentally sustainable use of freshwater
and coastal waters and their living resources.
26. The World Bank is financing a regional solid waste
management programme in the Caribbean to mitigate
groundwater pollution, among other environmental impacts.
The Asian Development Bank is financing the development
of water utilities in the Federated States of Micronesia.
V. Recommendations on proposed
activities for freshwater resources
A. Enhancing integrated planning and
management
27. Even more than non-insular countries, small island
developing States need an integrated approach to water
resources management that includes strengthening
institutions that can fundamentally affect their
environmentally sustainable management and use of water
resources. Such an approach includes the
formulation/revision of national policy and strategies as
well as action plans involving various interested actors:
local authorities, non-governmental organizations, civil
society, the private sector and users of water resources.
Cross-sectoral collaboration between land and water
planning should be actively promoted, and the effectiveness
of water and environmental agencies to monitor and enforce
good spatial planning practice in fragile upland and coastal
zones needs to be enhanced. In addition, there is a need to
consider the adoption and application of environmental risk
assessments, remote sensing for land use and micro-zoning.
B. Promoting technical cooperation among
small island developing States
28. Small island developing States often need island-specific
or regional studies to identify and assess their water
resources, and to formulate and implement effective
development and management programmes. To that end,
some small island developing States in different regions
have organizations that can share their technical expertise
and experience with other small island developing States.
Establishment of relevant institutions, where needed, is one
means of facilitating such exchange; one existing example
is the Pacific Water and Waste Association. It also would
be helpful to encourage linkages between small island
developing States and the bigger archipelago countries that
have development programmes for their island provinces.
C. Promoting policies encouraging efficient
management and use of existing water
resources
29. Further efforts are required to promote demand
management, efficiency of water services and protection of
water sources. Demand management and leak detection can
help to conserve the existing resource base. Proactive
programmes of waste management and minimization can
help to protect the resource base but must clearly be linked
to land management policies if they are to be effective.
D. Promotion of techniques and
methodologies appropriate for small
island developing States
30. Technologies more appropriate for small island
developing States, such as rainwater harvesters,
groundwater collectors through horizontal galleries, radially
drained wells to skim freshwater lenses and low-yielding
solar pumps, need to be promoted to avoid last-resort
solutions, such as desalination.
31. Further identification and application of cleaner
production methodologies, relating to the specific
development and resource needs of small island developing
States, should also be priority activities. These would also
include cleaner practices and efficient use of water
resources in all industries, particularly the growing
industrial and agricultural sectors, hotels and tourism
facilities.
32. The unique characteristics of small island developing
States should also be the basis for (a) developing
self-sufficient facilities to handle solid waste, sewage
and waste water, and (b) facilities for prevention of
groundwater contamination.
E. The island systems management approach
33. The diminutive size of small islands means that
sustainable socio-economic development and the needed
natural resource base, including water resources, are
interdependent. Thus, consistent with the thrust of the
Programme of Action, the management and use of
freshwater, coastal and marine resources should be
undertaken within an institutional framework that considers
linkages with the sources of potential impacts on those
resources.
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Date last posted: 8 December 1999 15:15:30
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