Abu Dhabi: The UN System — working closely with its member states and other relevant stakeholders — is collectively bringing its attention to the water-energy nexus with the World Water Day this year.

The UN is trying to address inequities, especially for the ‘bottom billion’ who live in slums and impoverished rural areas and survive without access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, sufficient food and energy services.

These are the objectives of Water Day 2014:

— Raise awareness of the interlinkages between water and energy.

-Contribute to a policy dialogue that focuses on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and energy.

-Demonstrate, through case studies, to decision makers in the energy sector and the water domain that integrated approaches and solutions to water-energy issues can achieve greater economic and social impacts

-Identify policy formulation and capacity development issues in which the UN system, in particular UN-Water and UN-Energy, can offer significant contributions.

-Identify key stakeholders in the water-energy nexus and actively engaging them in further developing the water-energy linkages.