President of the Republic of Tajikistan

Participation in the High level Side event on the margins of the UN Summit for sustainable development “Catalyzing Implementation and Achievement of the Water-related SDGs”

27.09.2015 16:48, United States

This early morning, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon in New York City of the United States of America took part and spoke at the High level Side event on the margins of the UN Summit for sustainable development “Catalyzing Implementation and Achievement of the Water-related SDGs” which took place at the initiative of Tajikistan.

Jan Eliasson - UN Deputy Secretary-General, General Prayut Chan-o-cha - Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, Adam Zoltan Kovach - Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary on International Cooperation, Ms. Helen Clark - UNDP Administrator also participated and spoke at this high level side event.

UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark opened the high level event with an opening speech and stated, in particular, that "You, Mr. President, Emomali Rahmon are one of the leaders and founders of the review of water-related issues at the international level and Tajikistan's initiatives for the promotion of water-related policy of the United Nations in the agenda of water-related Sustainable Development Goals up to 2030 are important and key initiatives. Today's event and participation of respected state, sphere and international circles in this prestigious event is an evident demonstration of this initiative."

First of all, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon congratulated the audience on the occasion of the high level side event and thanked them for participation in the fruitful debates on the subject “Catalyzing Implementation and Achievement of the Water-related SDGs”. He also expressed gratitude for the organization of this event to the committee chairman of the "Water Friends" Group and particularly to the permanent representations of Finland, Thailand as well as the United Nations Development Programme.

President of Tajikistan stated that during the International Decade of Action “Water for Life, 2005-2015” the international community achieved significant progress in the implementation of the internationally agreed goals on water, including  advocating and promoting the  MDG goals on water and sanitation. "We believe that all these achievements became possible due to the adoption and realization of new approaches and coordinated efforts at national, regional and international levels."

As it was noted, the primary goal of the “Water for Life” Decade proclaimed on December 23, 2003 by the initiative of Tajikistan was to promote efforts at meeting the international commitments on water and sanitation by 2015. In this process the focus was on furthering cooperation at all levels.

Emomali Rahmon called the past Decade a time of considerable changes in the water sector, and beyond as well as regarded as a big accomplishment the increase of awareness and participation of civil society in this process. The Tajik President mentioned that "Within the Decade framework there was adopted a long-term strategy and plan of action on a global level, and importantly, a political process was set in motion. The Decade also contributed to the increase of engagement of different stakeholders. It also helped establish an interaction between governmental and non-governmental actors, to engage women, youth, business and academia in discussion of water-related issues. In addition, there were set up relevant structures and mechanisms aimed at strengthening of inter-agency coordination during the Decade."

The President of the country reminded of the role of Tajikistan as the country initiator of the International Water Decade and named a number of measures taken by the Government of Tajikistan at the national, regional and global level for its successful implementation.

"Through efforts of the Government of our country, - said Emomali Rahmon, - in cooperation with the United Nations and other international organizations - numerous international events have taken place in Dushanbe City." In this regards, the Head of state mentioned about the International Conference of Transboundary Rivers (2005, Dushanbe), International Conference on Water Disasters Reduction (2008, Dushanbe), International High level conference on mid-term comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, 2005-2015 (2010, Dushanbe), International High level conference on water cooperation (2013, Dushanbe), and International High level conference on the Implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, 2005-2015 (2015, Dushanbe).

In addition, by the initiative of Tajikistan and in compliance with the relevant UNGA resolutions, the High level interactive dialogues were organized during the 64th , 67th and 69th UNGA sessions,  which were dedicated to the review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”,  launching of  the International Year of  Water Cooperation, 2013, and  the 20th anniversary of proclamation of World Water Day.

Despite tangible progress achieved during the Decade, Emomali Rahmon mentioned about the gaps and difficulties that emerged in the course of its implementation and have created certain obstacles, and stated that despite considerable achievements in addressing the MDGs target on water, the target on sanitation remains unachieved. At the same time, he raised concern over different levels of implementation of these targets in the regions, developed and developing countries, towns and villages, rich and poor population.

According to the President of Tajikistan, today about 750 million people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water, and  2.5 billion people lack  relevant access to basic sanitation. Approximately 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. The average annual economic damage caused by natural disasters, exceeds 60 billion US dollars, and droughts and desertification threaten the source of income of over 1.2 billion people the world over. 

Given the above, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon put forward an initiative to declare a new International Decade entitled “Water for Sustainable Development” at the 7th World Water Forum and expressed confidence that the new Decade will become very instrumental in the implementation of the water related SDGs.

There is no doubt that the new decade will reinforce the progress achieved during the International Decade “Water for Life”, and will create a solid platform for consolidation of our efforts aimed at further management of water issues for the post 2015 period.

In this regard, Emomali Rahmon considered the proposal of Tajikistan on the new Decade as a timely initiative, and called on member states to support it.

In conclusion of his speech the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon said that "I believe that a dignified life for future generations can be ensured only through joint efforts. For this reason, the support of those existing initiatives that could help facilitate meeting water-related commitments at the national, regional and global levels, and coordination of our activities in this area are becoming a matter of top priority."

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