World Water Forum whets interest

Is it ethically proper to fix a price to one of the world's most precious natural resources? At the World Water Forum held recently in The Netherlands, this was one of the most hotly debated of the many important issues raised. Against a background of looming water crisis worldwide, water experts, government representatives and the media converged on The Hague, Netherlands from 17 - 22 March 2000 to discuss strategies for better management, conservation and provision of water to the world's rising population.

Only 2.5 per cent of the world's water is not salty, of which two-thirds is locked in ice caps and glaciers. Of the remaining fresh water - that subject to the hydrological cycle - some 20 per cent is in areas too remote for human access and, of the remaining 80 per cent, about three-quarters comes in monsoons and floods and cannot be captured for use by people.

What remains for use is less than 0.08 per cent of one per cent of the total water on the planet. About 70 per cent of this water is used in agriculture to grow food and fibre on which human society depends. These figures, presented to the Forum by the World Water Commission, provided participants with a challenge that none took lightly. "The numbers of people participating, and the interest of the media for the event, must help to increase worldwide awareness of the water crisis," noted His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange (Holland), speaking as chairman of the World Water Forum. "If we are to achieve a water-secure world, we need to make water everyone's business."

The Forum sought to find ways of moving from a global vision of providing water for all to action. Agriculture, dams, environment, security and peace were discussed in different workshops, but the main document tabled was a report of the World Water Commission entitled, "A Water Secure World: Vision for water, life and the environment." The report emphasised that, "Every human being, now and in the future should have enough water for drinking, hygiene and energy at reasonable cost."

To achieve these goals the Commission proposed that holistic, integrated water resources management should replace the fragmentation that currently exists in water management. The Commission further stressed the need to create participatory mechanisms to involve all sectors of society in decision making in water management and the creation of incentives for resource mobilisation and technology change. The commission report went on to call for increased political will, behavioural change and recognition of water as a basic need that must be made available to all and emphasizing that the poor must not be excluded.

The most controversial point of the report, and one that created divisions between countries from the North and those from the South, was full cost pricing of water. The Commission took the view that, "without full cost pricing, the present vicious cycle of water waste, inefficiency and lack of service for the poor will continue." However, a joint statement issued by the International Rivers Network, Rivers and People, and Both Ends International Committee on Dams, warned that emphasising full cost recovery might worsen the current situation where some water bodies 'have promoted water and agriculture policies which have left billions of people without access to safe water, sanitation and adequate nutrition and at even more risk from floods and droughts.' A coalition of NGOs described the full cost pricing proposal as 'flawed and dominated by technocratic and top down thinking, resulting in the creation of documents which emphasize a corporate vision of privatisation, large scale investment and technology as the key answers.'

This second World Water Forum closed on the 22 March (the day declared World Water Day in 1992) with a ministerial declaration of commitment to water management. The declaration did not go without criticism. Green Cross, an International Environmental Organization headed by former Soviet Union President Mikael Gobachev said, "The declaration lacks strength on certain points, in particular those related to the risks of inter-state conflicts in regions of increasing water scarcity. The declaration is silent on the importance of established mechanisms for water conflict prevention and resolution. The declaration lacks conviction on the question of water ethics. It also fails to adequately stress the extent of the water scarcity which many regions of the world already suffer from, which many more will suffer if changes are not rapidly implemented."

"The business-as-usual approach is not going to solve the water problems of the future, said Ismail Serageldin, Chairman of the World Commission on Water and World Bank Vice-President for Special Programmes. "What we need is a drastic change in the ways we handle water issues."

Whatever else it may or may not have achieved, the second World Water Forum was a great eye opener to the challenges of water in the 21st Century.

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