WATER SUSTAINABILITY OPPORTUNITIES ARISING FROM THE SDGS AND THE RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN

Abstract

Water is one of the basic necessities of life. However, water crises have become more frequent around the world as billions of people continue to suffer from a lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. Water is a limited resource that has been in growing demand � with the world's population increasing and water-intensive economic development continuing, infrastructure of many countries is not fit to meet accelerating demand. With climate change and its variability fluctuations in rainfall and extreme temperatures occur, causing shorter rain seasons and longer dry periods � making water and its availability more unpredictable. These changes have a serious impact on lives and livelihoods. Water is essential in all sectors for the production of food, energy, goods, and services. Over the past century, global water consumption has increased at more than twice the rate of population growth. Many water sources are drying up, more polluted, or both. The European Environment Agency (EEA) defines water stress as a situation where there is not enough water of sufficient quality to meet the needs of the people and of the environment. Lack of water is a relative term, the amount of water that is physically available changes as supply and demand change. Water scarcity intensifies when demand increases and/or when water supply is affected by declining quantity or quality. Water, energy and food security are key to sustainable long-term economic development and human well-being. The water, energy and food nexus focuses on decision-making in the complex linkages between systems that produce, supply and use goods and resources. The purpose of assessing such linkages is to identify untapped potential of synergies, such as in the case of water- and energy-related measures and the consequent impact of coordinated measures in contrast to uncoordinated measures. Based on the application of scientific methods in relation to the investigation of sustainability in water resources (the �W� Matrix in the framework of the Water- Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus) on the background of quantitative & qualitative sustainable development and CSR trends, the main aim of our paper is to assess sustainability in water resources in the context of the WEF nexus as well as in the light of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to formulate opportunities arising from the European Union Recovery and Resilience Plans. When documenting quantitative & qualitative sustainable development trends in the context of the WEF Nexus, our paper addressed the United Nations 2030 Agenda (alias �SDG diplomacy�) as well as the NextGenerationEU Agenda (alias �Green Deal diplomacy�).