A three-day meeting will commence today (Tuesday) in Canada to formulate a strategy for coordinated response to the looming world crisis as leading experts believe that the greatest impact of climate change will be on water supply.

The meeting is being convened by United Nation-Water’s new Chair, Zafar Adeel, Director of the UN University’s Hamilton-based Institute for Water, Environment & Health. He was elected at a UN-Water meeting last August in Stockholm for a two-year term. Originally from Pakistan, Dr Adeel’s career has focused on key water-related issues in various parts of the world.

At its first-ever meeting in Canada, more than two dozen leading United Nations water experts met in Hamilton on February 02, 2010 to formulate a fresh strategy to tackle the global water crisis that increasingly threatens both human health and international security.

The group known as UN-Water will also formalise international ceremonies to mark the World Water Day 2010 (March 22) and help set both direction and UN agency contributions for the next triennial World Water Development Report in 2012.

The UN-Water was created to coordinate global water-related work of 26 relevant UN agencies, and to interact with 17 major partners such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The UN-Water focuses on providing policy briefs and other information or communication materials for the public, as well as policy and other decision-makers.

“This meeting of UN agencies comes at a crucial time, just two months after the UN’s historic Copenhagen conference on climate change and four months before leaders of the G8 and G20 nations meet in Canada,” said Dr Adeel. “The global importance of water issues cannot be overstated,” he said. “Virtually all climate change impacts are expressed through water in one form or another, including more severe storms and extreme floods, and rapidly disappearing glaciers, often called ‘Earth’s water towers’.”

“Meanwhile, nearly 3.5 million people die each year due to water-related diseases like cholera and diarrhea. Likewise, water scarcity and drought in many parts of the world is directly linked to poverty and high public health costs.” The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts worsening impacts in immediate decades to come, said Dr Adeel.

“My goal as the UN-Water chair is to demonstrate the significance of water issues in global policy debates, including the ongoing financial crisis as well as food security, climate change, international peace and stability. Water is central to each of those debates but typically isn’t seen as such,” he said.

“UN-Water members and partners help assure better, more cohesive delivery of water services in several countries.