IAH continued to be very active with UN family organisations. To support and provide a focus for this work we set up a new group, LUNA – Liaison with UN Activities – to manage the growing links. The most significant activities included the following.
IAH sub-groups and members held events for World Water Day 2024 and contributed to the associated UN World Water Development Report. This highlighted ‘the complex and interlinked relationships between water, prosperity and peace’. The full report is available at https://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2024. We were also involved in preparations for World Water Day 2025, on glacier preservation, and the World Water Development Report 2026 on water and gender.
IAH’s President and the Director of LUNA were invited to speak at the scientific colloquium on ‘50 years of Evolution of Science of Hydrology: From Science to Application and Way Forward’, held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Water Programme at UNESCO and 50th anniversary of its Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP).
IAH was represented at the ‘SDG 6 and Water Action Agenda Special Event 2024’, a significant event aimed at reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty, that took place at UN Headquarters in New York. The event was part of the ‘High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development’. We made further representations to the meeting of the ‘Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes’ (Water Convention) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.