The World Water Development Report

2014: Water and Energy

Solar panels cleaning ©World Bank 2010

A woman enjoys her new water tap, Vinh Long Province, Vietnam ©AusAID

Water and energy are closely interconnected and highly interdependent. Choices made and actions taken in one domain can greatly affect the other, positively or negatively. Trade-offs need to be managed to limit negative impacts and foster opportunities for synergy. Water and energy have crucial impacts on poverty alleviation both directly, as a number of the Millennium Development Goals depend on major improvements in access to water, sanitation, power and energy sources, and indirectly, as water and energy can be binding constraints on economic growth – the ultimate hope for widespread poverty reduction.

In view of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, likely to include increased access to water and energy services, this fifth edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report seeks to inform decision-makers (inside and outside the water and energy domains), stakeholders and practitioners about the interlinkages, potential synergies and trade-offs, and to highlight the need for appropriate responses and regulatory frameworks that account for both water and energy priorities. The Report provides a comprehensive overview of major and emerging trends from around the world, with examples of how some of the trend-related challenges have been addressed, their implications for policy-makers, and further actions that can be taken by stakeholders and the international community.

About the Report

The World Water Development Report, or WWDR, is produced by the World Water Assessment Programme, a programme of UN-Water hosted by UNESCO, and is the result of the joint efforts of the UN agencies and entities which make up UN-Water, working in partnership with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. 

The report was until 2012 a comprehensive, triennial report on the state, use and management of the world's water resources. After an detailed review and stakeholder surveys on the scope and purposes of the report, it was decided to make it an annual and more concise publication that is increasingly facts-based and has a more specific thematic focus.

The first edition of the annual report will address the theme "Water and Energy" in 2014 and will be launched during the main World Water Day celebrations in Tokyo, Japan on 21 March 2014.

Starting in 2014, the theme of the World Water Development Report and that of World Water Day will be harmonized in order to provide a deeper focus and in-depth analysis of a specific water-related issue every year.

Sneak peek at the report's contents

You're dying to see what's in the upcoming World Water Development Report and can't wait until March 2014? Watch the teaser presentation by Lead Author Rick Connor at the World Water Week in Stockholm in September 2013 below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJxoAi-9yoc&noredirect=1