During the three days of the Fermun 2023 conference, the Un Water committee chaired by Raphaëlle Holroyd and Eléonore Hasler was able to debate and find common ground in order to find the necessary solutions to the following two issues

– Good eco-sustainable practices of water use: How to better train users?

– In the face of drought, how to make vulnerable populations and fragile ecosystems more resilient?

Originally Un Water is not a committee as such of the United Nations but it is an entity that was developed in the models in order to bring together all the issues that fall under the theme of water, during the conference there were 23 delegations that were able to discuss the various issues.

In the first part of the conference, the different delegations were able to address the issue of the resilience of ecosystems and populations to drought. The delegations of the United States and Malta were each at the head of a state union to draft a resolution and defend their ideas. With two resolutions globally taking up the same ideas as well as a majority of votes in the assembly in favour of them, the debates for this first issue are closed.

The second part of the conference will deal with the issue of good eco-sustainable practices for water management and more particularly with how to better educate users. During the lobbying two alliances were created between the states, the division was made according to the capacities and the desire of the countries to set up an awareness campaign. The representatives of the two alliances for this issue were the delegations of Colombia and Indonesia.  With more or less complete ideas that respond to international issues and a slightly platonic debate due to a general agreement in the assembly towards the issue, the two resolutions debated were approved with an absolute majority in the assembly. So, this conference ended with three days of intense research, debates, cooperation and conflicts in order to find solutions to our problems.

We can underline the fact that throughout the conference the delegation of Malta represented by Estelle Rossetti as well as Sidonie Leherpeur was particularly invested within the committee. With numerous speeches and regular speeches, the delegates were able to assert themselves and be persuasive in order to defend their ideas with ardor. It is certain that the entire Un Water committee will remember this delegation.

The committee chairs were also able to share their views in a short interview:

Why did you choose to be president?

I had already been a delegate before and honestly they are both very enriching experiences with very different responsibilities and workloads and since this is my last year at MUN and this is a face-to-face conference I took the opportunity to be president and I am very happy about it. Éléonore Hasler
Last year I was an assistant to the presidents, so this year I really wanted to see what it was like and have more responsibility. I realized that last year I had seen many facets of this role but that I still had a lot to discover. Raphaëlle Holroyd

Did the conference meet your expectations?

As far as the speeches were concerned, yes, they were very eloquent and daring, but in terms of content, I think that a little more depth would have made the whole thing even more interesting. Raphaëlle Holroyd

Frankly, I think that all the delegations will agree that we had a good time in the committee. We will leave this conference with very good memories, we were able to meet many people from all over the world and that was great.  But it is true that the content of the debates was a little bit superficial, I expected more remarks on the history of the countries or on what the countries have put in place for example. Otherwise, the conference was really great. Éléonore Hasler

ROBIN Mahe et VOROBIEVA Svetlana