World Forum Views Water as a Life and Death Issue
By Alexandru R. Savulescu
KYOTO, Japan, March 17, 2003 (ENS) - With the world poised for war in Iraq, thousands of participants gathered in Kyoto for the 3rd World Water Forum are expressing their concern over another potential source of conflict - water.
"Our discussions will have far more effect on humankind for the 21st century than the current crisis in the Middle East, or any other political problem of the day," believes William Cosgrove, vice president of the World Water Council, a think tank on water founded in 1996.
To date, no fewer than 300 potential water conflict zones have been identified by the United Nations.
"The world is in a water crisis that will only grow more acute and devastating in coming years unless governments start giving higher priority to water in their development and investment plans," says Cosgrove.
The Forum is expected to be the most important international water conference ever held. In a break with the traditional approaches to such meetings, the organizers are asking participants to come not to debate issues, but to describe actions they have taken, and make concrete commitments to future actions.
Says Hideaki Oda, secretary general of the Secretariat of the 3rd World Water Forum, "I am very proud of the fact that the Forum's program was shaped by many around the world through the Water Voice project, the Virtual Water Forum, regional and international meetings - this has been a true ground up approach in organizing this event."
Key topics include - good governance, such as making governments accept water as a priority; effective management through capacity building; creating new models for financing; giving large segments of society, especially women and the poor, a voice in water issues; building from the bottom up a watchdog system involving independent parties to monitor the existing situation and the progress which is being made.
The 3rd World Water Forum now underway in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka is the central highlight of the United Nations' 2003 International Year of Freshwater, and World Water Day, March 22.
The organizers symbolically decided to hold Forum events at three different venues in the same river basin, in order to promote all aspects of water conservation, as well as strengthening the cooperation among residents, governments, the business community, and nongovernmental organizations.
Lake Biwa and the Yodo River basin, where Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka are placed, have long developed as the center of the country's culture and economy. Kyoto was the capital of feudal Japan for 1,000 years.
There are many complex problems to be solved. According to a report released earlier this month by the World Water Assessment Programme, over the next 20 years the world's population will increase from six billion to an estimated 7.2 billion, while the average supply of water per person is expected to drop by one-third.
Presently, the World Water Council estimates that 1.4 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, and 2.3 billion people lack adequate sanitation.
Daily use per inhabitant totals 600 liters (158 gallons) in residential areas of North America and Japan, and between 250 and 350 liters (66 and 92 gallons) in Europe, while daily water use per inhabitant in sub-Saharan Africa averages just 10 to 20 liters (2.64 to 5.28 gallons).
However, "the dream of pure water for all is within the reach of humanity," says Michel Camdessus, chairman of the World Panel on Financing Global Water Infrastructure, and former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
"Financial flows will need to at least double for us to reach this goal by 2025," said Camdessus. "They will have to come from financial markets, from water authorities themselves through tariffs, from multilateral financial institutions, from governments, and from public development aid, preferably in the form of grants."
Current levels of clean water financing in developing and transitional countries is estimated at $80 billion annually.
Based on data for the period 1950 to 1998, the number of major flood disasters worldwide has grown from decade to decade - six major floods in the 1950s, seven in the 1960s, eight in the 1970s, 18 in the 1980s, and 26 in the 1990s.
The number of significant floods disasters in the 1990s was higher than in the previous three decades combined. Floods in the period from 1991 to 1995 affected more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. This total includes 318,000 killed, according to the International Red Cross. In the most calamitous storm surge, the flood in Bangladesh in April 1991 killed 140,000 people.
Two floods in China, one in 1996 and the second in 1998, caused the highest material losses of the decade, of the order of $30 billion and $26.5 billion respectively.
The majority of the world's worst floods occurred in Asian countries, but few nations of the world are free of flood danger, as demonstrated by the unprecedented floods in 2002 in Europe. Even countries located in dry areas have not been safe from floods.
Droughts are becoming more severe and widespread, says the World Water Council. A direct consequence of drought is crop loss that can, in turn, cause starvation among humans.
Indirectly, water shortage contributes to the proliferation of diseases, without water for hygiene. Up to 45 percent of reported deaths from natural disasters between 1992 and 2001 resulted from droughts and famines. The most vulnerable communities are impoverished peoples occupying marginal rural and urban environments.
Sea level rise, due to melting of the polar ice caps as the global climate warms, is a concern in coastal and low lying areas, including small islands. In addition to coastal flooding, saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers presents a threat to water supplies. The average global sea level from 1990 to the year 2100 is expected to be 0.48 meters (19 inches), between twice and four times the rate of rise over the 20th century. The main effect on humans will be to confront extreme events such as storm surges.
But there are also signs of hope. "There is growing evidence that precautionary designs, disaster preparedness, mitigation measures and adaptation of lifestyles can have a huge impact on both saving lives and preserving economic assets," says Cosgrove. The Red Cross estimates that every dollar spent on protection from natural disasters can save from four to 10 dollars in relief costs.
For example, while the 1991 cyclone and associated storm surge in Bangladesh claimed 140,000 lives, the death toll dropped to less than 200 in similar cyclones in 2001 and 2002, after the government took disaster preparedness measures.
The Netherlands is another case in point. After hundreds of years of experience in battling the elements and fortifying its defense system against water, the government is now working on a new policy, called Give Water Space. It designates certain areas that will be submerged when rivers cannot handle the amount of water increases after extreme rainfall. This would replace past Dutch policy of relying solely on the construction of ever higher dikes.
The opening ceremony of the 3rd World Water Forum on Sunday in the Kyoto International Conference Hall was followed by the presentation of the winners of the 2003 inaugural Hassan II Great World Water Prize.
The Hassan II prize, including a trophy, a certificate and a sum of US$100,000, is a joint initiative of the World Water Council and the Kingdom of Morocco, to recognize outstanding achievements in handling of water resources. The theme for the inaugural prize is cooperation and solidarity in management and development in water resources.
The opening sessions of the Forum focused on Water and Climate; Water and Energy; Water Supply, Sanitation, Hygiene and Water Pollution; and Water and Cultural Diversity. Today's sessions are covering Water, Food and Environment; Water, Nature and Environment; Water and Transport; and Gender and Water.
UN: World Water Crisis Due to Leadership Inertia
PARIS, France, March 5, 2003 (ENS) - A global water crisis of the future is taking shape today, due to "attitude and behavior problems," on the part of national leaders, says a report made public today written jointly by all United Nations agencies that deal with water. "This crisis is one of water governance, essentially caused by the ways in which we mismanage water," the agencies report.
The 23 UN agencies that contributed to the World Water Development Report, "Water for People, Water for Life" together constitute the World Water Assessment Programme whose secretariat is hosted by UNESCO. "Water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change," they predict.
"Attitude and behavior problems lie at the heart of the crisis," says the report, "inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective actions." The water crisis is getting worse and will continue to do so, the agencies say, unless countries and communities, working alone and together, take action to safeguard water supplies.
"When all is said and done," the report says, "it is action at the local level, improving the lives of real people, which counts the most."
Written as a major United Nations contribution to 2003: The International Year of Freshwater, the report will be formally presented to the international community on World Water Day, March 22, during the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. A series of high level panel discussions will be organized to discuss the results.
"Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth," says UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.
The top five water rich countries, with the exception of Greenland and Alaska, are: French Guiana, Iceland, Guyana, Suriname, and Congo.
The United States, including Hawaii, ranks 52nd of the 180 countries listed in terms of water availability.
"No region will be spared from the impact of this crisis which touches every facet of life, from the health of children to the ability of nations to secure food for their citizens," said Matsuura. "Water supplies are falling while the demand is dramatically growing at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water worldwide per person is expected to drop by a third."
The UN agencies predict that by the year 2025, water withdrawal will increase by 50 percent in developing countries and 18 percent in developed countries. "Effects on the world's ecosystems have the potential to dramatically worsen the present situation," they state.
As demand for water grows, "there is much talk of looming water wars," the agencies acknowledge. But their report presents evidence that while water scarcity will intensify conflicts between states, these situations will be unlikely to "explode into full fledged water wars."
The report highlights the findings of a study of every single water related interaction between two countries or more over the past 50 years. Of the total of 1,831 interactions, the majority, 1,228, were cooperative. They involved the signing of about 200 water sharing treaties or the construction of new dams.
A total of 507 conflictive events were documented. Only 37 involved violence, of which 21 consisted of military acts - 18 between Israel and its neighbors.
"Some of the most vociferous enemies around the world have negotiated water agreements or are in the process of doing so concerning international rivers," says the report. "The Mekong Committee, for example, continued to exchange data throughout the Viet Nam War. The Indus River Commission survived through two wars between India and Pakistan. And all ten Nile riparian states are currently involved in negotiations over development of the basin."
Urban areas lacking water infrastructure are among the world's most life threatening environments when infrastructure and services are lacking, the agencies report. According to a survey of 116 cities, urban areas in Africa are the worst served, with only 18 percent of households connected to sewers. The connection rate in Asia is just over 40 percent.
"From a public health perspective," says the report, "it is better to provide a whole city's population with safe supplies to taps within 50 metres of their home than to provide only the richest 20 percent of households with water piped to their home."
Today industry accounts for 22 percent of total water use in the world: 59 percent in high income countries and eight percent in low income countries. The report predicts that this average will reach 24 percent by 2025.
About 25,000 people die every day from hunger, the agencies report. An estimated 815 million people suffer from undernourishment - 777 million in developing countries, 27 million in countries in transition and 11 million in industrialized countries.
Concerns over water pricing and privatization are addressed in the report. "Although it is considered essential to involve the private sector in water resource management," according to the executive summary, "it should be seen as a financial catalyst - not so much as a precondition - for project development."
"Control of the assets and the resource should remain in the hands of the government and users," the agencies state.
The report details the need to make risk reduction an integral part of water resource management. While the number of geophysical disasters like earthquakes and landslides has been roughly the same, the scale and number of water related events such as droughts and floods has more than doubled since 1996.
With more than 25 world maps, many charts, graphs, and seven case studies of major river basins, the report analyzes how diverse societies cope with water scarcity, and which policies work or fail. Through the World Water Assessment Programme it lays the foundation for the United Nations to monitor and report on the state of the water resource by developing a set of standardized methodologies, data and indicators.
The World Water Assessment Programme, together with other partners, is developing the World Water Portal, to provide access to a wide body of water information to serve decision makers, water managers, technicians, and the public at large. Before going global, a prototype water portal has been developed for the Americas to test ways of sharing information among local, national and regional water organizations. Visit: http://www.waterportal-americas.org
Visit the World Water Day 2003 website at: http://www.waterday2003.org
