NGO European Water Association's (EWA) “Water Manifesto 2020” identifies current challenges for water management in Europe and presents corresponding sustainable solutions in four critical themes:

• Nature-based Solutions to Respond to Climate Change
• Financing Investment in Water Services
• Asset Management and Digitalisation of Water Infrastructure
• Boosting Water Demand Management

The World Bank has approved $27.4 Million USD in financial support for Kosovo’s Fostering and Leveraging Opportunities for Water Security Program (FLOWS). A 10 June announcement describes the programme's aims to strengthen Kosovo’s capacity for managing water security at the national level and to improve water security in the driest region of Morava e Binces basin, in particular.

A new report from the United Nations’ High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP) suggests that improving water supply, especially in developing nations, would have a significant positive effect on the amount of plastic waste dumped in oceans.

World Environment Day (5 June) 2020, hosted by Colombia, had the theme "Time For Nature". In an address marking the occasion Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), described “Humanity’s unhealthy relationship with nature”, saying that “The science does not lie…We can tell much of the story of the damage our species has wrought with a few facts”:

• Humanity has altered 75 per cent of the Earth’s ice-free surface.
• Since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest, equal to three times the size of South Africa, have been lost.
• Nearly one million species face extinction, while the illegal wildlife trade is the fourth largest illegal trade crime in the world.
• COVID-19, which was transmitted from animals to humans, is a direct warning that nature can take no more. COVID-19 is zoonotic, a type of disease that transmits between animals and humans. We are facing it in large part because humanity’s expansion into wild spaces and exploitation of species brings people into closer contact with wildlife. COVID-19 may be one of the worst, but it is not the first. 75 Percent of all emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic. origins. Ebola, SARS, the Zika virus and bird flu all spread from animals to people, often due to human encroachment on nature.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified water security among six “global systemic risks” in a white paper which outlines a governance framework to enable the investment community to address the annual investment gap of $6.26 Trillion USD required to mitigate these risks. The other systemic risks are climate change, population growth, geopolitical uncertainty, negative interest rates and technology disruption.

“Transformational Investment: Converting Global Systemic Risks into Sustainable Returns”, released in May, provides new insights to ensure that the long-term impact of non-traditional risks and opportunities can be better understood.

The government of Ethiopia has described preparations for land clearing behind the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) ahead of commencing filling its Blue Nile reservoir with water in July.

Bashir Abdel Rahim, Director General of Ethiopia’s Job Creation Agency said 30 June that more than 2,000 workers will be deployed to remove trees, shrubs and stones from the land behind the dam, with a total of 1,000 hectares to be cleared within 45 days.

Previously on 21 May, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to resume technical discussions on filling the dam after virtual talks between Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Further OOSKAnews Coverage of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

The deferred United Nations climate change summit (COP26) will now take place in Glasgow, Scotland, between 1 and 12 November 2021. The event had been postponed from planned November 2020 dates because of the COVID pandemic. In the meantime the conference venue, the Scottish Exhibition Centre, was repurposed as a hospital facility supporting Scotland’s National Health Service in response to the virus crisis.

Human Right 2 Water, a new international NGO launched in Switzerland 26 May, will provide a critical knowledge hub for the integration of human rights to water and sanitation into governance systems.