World Forum on water:
Pledges clean water and sanitation
ISTANBUL: A seven-day focus on the world’s water crunch was
winding up here yesterday with an expected pledge to work harder to
provide access to clean water and sanitation and tackle worsening
scarcity.
The declaration was to be published at the end of the fifth World
Water Forum by more than 100 ministers or their stand-ins, although
activists on Saturday attacked the non-binding document as worthless.
“The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes,
including population growth, migration, urbanisation, climate change,
desertification, drought, degradation and land use, economic and diet
changes,” a draft of the statement said.
It sets out a roster of recommendations for action, including greater
cooperation to ease disputes over water, measures to address floods and
drought, curbing pollution and better management of rivers, lakes and
aquifers.
The World Water Forum is held every three years, and has gained in
importance as an arena for debating the globe’s amplifying problems of
freshwater.
At least 25,000 policymakers, water specialists and grassroots
workers took part in this year’s event, a record attendance.
Campaigners representing the rural poor, the environment and
organised labour on Saturday criticised the Forum as a vehicle for
privatising of water resources and called for future meetings to be held
under the UN flag.
The Forum is staged by the World Water Council, a French-based
organisation whose funding comes in large part from the water industry.
Sunday, AFP |