Some of the world's greatest advocates in the water sector gathered on 3 September at the Water Dome in Johannesburg for a side event of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, jointly organized by the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDESA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO. Led by the Summit's Secretary-General Nitin Desai, and in the presence of HRH the Prince of Orange, the event underscored concrete ways to measure the state of a nation's water as a means to improve water resources management in the longer term. Several speakers stressed the opportunity afforded by the International Year of Freshwater, 2003.

New donor pledges

Mr. Desai stated, "Perhaps water has been the biggest success story at the WSSD. We have clear goals for both water supply and sanitation. The broader issues of water resources management have had the greatest attention in the partnership announcements." Among NGOs, IGOs and bilateral donors, the greatest levels of funding had been pledged in the water sector, including $970 million over the next three years from the USA, a major European Water Initiative and $500 million from the Asian Development Bank for the Water for Asian Cities programme. There was wide recognition that water was central to the whole agenda of the Summit - health, girls' education, land management, agriculture and biodiversity. "If you get the water management right at the village level, it will improve land management, fisheries, biodiversity, energy and poverty. Water connects all the areas of sustainable development."

International Year of Freshwater, a Tajikistan initiative

Mr. Desai announced that 2003 had been proclaimed the International Year of Freshwater by the General Assembly, following the proposal by the President of Tajikistan. It was excellent timing to measure what countries can do as a follow up on agreements reached in the area of water. The 23 agencies of the UN system that are participating in the World Water Assessment Programme, could assist countries to measure their performance in implementation of promised water programmes.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan said that water was crucial for sustainable development in Central Asia. While his country was blessed with abundant water resources, recent droughts had affected agriculture that supports the population. Conservation and stewardship of water were more critical to human survival today than ever before. Resources needed to be conserved to meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving the proportion of people without access to adequate water supply and sanitation by 2015.

Links between water, poverty, health and hunger

Mr. Albert Wright, Co-coordinator of the UN Task Force on Implementation of the Water-related Millennium Development Goals and Chair of the African Water Task Force.

The next speakers were Co-coordinators of the UN Task Force on Implementation of the Water-related Millennium Development Goals. Mr. Albert Wright, who is also Chair of the African Water Task Force, said, "We have come an awfully long way since Rio. Several years ago, who would have imagined that water would be right at the top of he global agenda? Because here, at Rio + 10, it is. Water awareness has been increased tremendously." He noted that the Water Dome provided a unique opportunity for all the "water people to meet each other, do business and lobby the Summit."

Mr. Roberto Lenton, the second Coordinator, elaborated on how the Task Force was laying out the steps needed for the international community to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe and affordable water supply and sanitation by the year 2015. The three-year project would identify steps that had to be taken in water and other fields (poverty, health, hunger) and integrate them. He said that goals and targets would be meaningless without monitoring progress toward the goals. He then showed the link with the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), being jointly implemented by the UN agencies.

Sir Richard Jolly, Chair of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, also linked the water and sanitation goals to the assessment programme of the UN system. He stressed the importance of setting goals and monitoring, so that the public and the media have up-to-date assessments and feedback on whether programmes are on track, moving ahead or lagging behind. However, he cautioned, the precautionary principle, "should not become a precautionary approach." He compared excessive spending ($850 billion) on arms with investments needed for water and sanitation, arguing that a minor shift of funding from one to the other could yield great gains in human welfare and human security, especially for women. He said that in order to make a meaningful assessment, better definitions were needed for type of sewerage, adequacy of latrines, and distance from homes. Technical and financial support would be needed, especially in Africa, to build up good monitoring systems. He added that in urban and village settings, mayors have a useful mobilizing role to play.

National partners speak out

Three presentations were made on behalf of case studies included in the first edition of WWAP's World Water Development Report - for Thailand, Sri Lanka and Peru/Bolivia.

Thailand's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr Prapat Panyachatraksa, presented the case study on the Chao Phraya River Basin. This basin is in a transitional phase from water rich to water scarce, because of the increasing demands from urban and rural areas, industry and agriculture, and the deterioration of watersheds, wetlands and water quality. The assessment measures both quantity and quality of surface and groundwater and pinpoints the major water resources issues and potential conflicts. He emphasized that the preparation of the case study had been an important catalyst to solving existing water problems, and had led to the restructuring of the water resources management system.

The Sri Lanka case study was presented by the Secretary of the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Management, Mr S. Wickiramarachchi. He described the 30,000 ancient reservoirs that still supplied water for irrigation and domestic needs, of which 300 were considered major dam structures. The system had been harvesting rainwater during the wet season for use in the dry season for over 2000 years. He described the Ruhuna Basin, a cluster of seven rivers that had been selected as a WWAP case study. The assessment had been very important in measuring the demand from each sector (urban, industrial and agricultural use and protected areas) and in improving integrated water management in the basin. "WWAP is providing a framework to assess all the aspects of water resources use through its 11 challenge areas."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru presented the case study of the Lake Titicaca Basin, which is shared by Bolivia and Peru. He said that it was a good example of cooperation on shared waters, as the two countries had developed several instruments to preserve the resources and life in the Andes. These recognized that both countries share the resources and that no one can use the resources without prior agreement of the other. These were binding agreements that had taken over 30 years to conclude. Now the two countries were working together to develop a clear map of the resource, and how it could be managed. He stated that the main concern was the melting of the glaciers in the Andes, as a result of global warming. They had measured a sharp decrease in the glaciers, and were predicting the disappearance of glaciers below 5,000 metres elevation within 15 years. This would pose a terrible problem for the hydrological system, for hydropower, and for flows to the Amazon Basin system. The WWAP had been instrumental in assisting with these measurements.

European Union initiatives

H.E. Ambassador Dan Nielsen of Denmark spoke on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and the European Union. He said that they fully supported the initiative of the International Year of Freshwater, 2003 as well as the 3rd World Water Forum to be held in Japan. He stressed the importance of monitoring, assessment and reporting in the water sector in Europe, where there are more than 270 transboundary water systems. The EU had recently adopted the Water Framework Directive, which had modernized water legislation and management, based on good monitoring of groundwater, lakes, rivers, coastal water and the sea. The Directive was a strong tool to support decision making on water in Europe, not only in the EU, but in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that had applied to the EU. He also announced the launch of the European Water Initiative, which was a strategic partnership between the EU and other regions.

Closing remarks

Closing comments were made by Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. He stressed that, "Water is the centre of the global debate. Freshwater is the interface between energy, health, food security and biodiversity." He said that UNESCO considered the International Year of Freshwater 2003 as vitally important, as it would remind countries of the crucial importance of our water resources. He added that the publication of the World Water Development Report, at the 3rd World Water Forum in Japan in March 2003, would be an important contribution to the International Year. He was pleased that UNESCO and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs would be coordinating preparations for that important effort.

All participants were in agreement that, in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals in water and sanitation, monitoring systems would have to be put in place. The World Water Assessment Programme was a very good starting point, as the programme could be extended widely throughout developing countries and other regions. The International Year of Freshwater, 2003 provided an excellent opportunity to mobilize resources and to hold governments accountable for their commitments in the areas of water resources and sanitation management.

Source World Water Assessment Programme

Author(s) Marcia Brewster

Contact name Marcia Brewster

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