Achieving water security: everybody's business
It is my pleasure to present to you the intermediate results of the second World Water Forum. Four and a half thousand people are participating. I believe this is the largest international water policy gathering in history. As one of the organisers I am also proud to report the active participation by groups not traditionally well-represented in the water sector, particularly women and young people. The children - the generation whose future hangs in the balance - sang to us: Let us be part of the work! Let us join! You can count on us! They remind us that sustainable water management requires solutions with time horizons well beyond what we are used to in government plans.
The Forum is calling your urgent attention to the water crisis that the world is experiencing now. This crisis affects all of us but particularly the poor and the vulnerable in society - a majority of whom are women and children in the South - and the environment.
The participants in the Forum have discussed - and are still discussing - the World Water Vision and Framework for Action. The President of the World Water Council and the Chairman of the World Water Commission have told you about these. I would like to report to you the results of discussions of Visions and Actions at global, regional and sector level.
Character of my report
I speak to you as the Chairman of the Forum. I report to you what I perceive to be the key issues brought up by the Forum participants. These have come to me through the reports made of the sessions as well as my personal observations in many sessions. But my report to you remains my responsibility. The participants have not had a chance to vote on it.
Character of the Forum
The Forum is not an ordinary conference. The participants have responded to my call to them to maintain the spirit of the preparation of their many Visions and Frameworks for Action: open, transparent and participatory. In the Forum, we have not kept anybody out. We have invited everybody in. Provided that people were willing to engage in a civilized debate, we welcomed them all. We did have complaints that the lack of translation limited the possibility of debate for some participants. Let this be a lesson for the next Forum. Some participants also criticised Vision process and results. I will give you a brief summary of their key points hereafter.
During the Forum Opening Ceremony, as you may have heard, six participants chose to express their opposition to dams in a rather dominant manner, but thereafter participants of all persuasions have been engaged in constructive and fruitful debates. Dams have been debated in several sessions and I heard the Vice-Minister of Public Works of Mozambique request assistance to build dams for flood control. In any case we look forward to the report of the World Commission on Dams and hope that this will enhance the constructive debate on a clearly controversial topic. The representatives of major groups will present their views later this morning. I wish you, Ministers and delegates, fruitful discussions with the stakeholder representatives later today. In Southern and West Africa the initiatives for the development of a regional Visions were also taken outside governments, but in both cases regional meetings of governments have decided to adopt the regional Visions that resulted. No doubt your colleagues from Africa will speak to you about this.
Participation
I move from the rights issues to participation by all users in the management of water resources. While "participation" has become accepted by many countries and organisations, the user representatives in the Forum are pointing out to you that this should not be limited to asking users to participate in government programmes. Participation implies power-sharing: democratic participation of citizens in elaborating or implementing water policies and projects and in managing water resources.
From vision to action
A final point on behalf of the Forum delegations. I urge you -collectively or individually - not only to support the development of targets and indicators of progress, but to commit to adopting targets at a national or regional level. And to report these to the Dublin+10 meeting in 2002 for monitoring through an international mechanism.
I want to remind you why you are here. As world citizens we cannot accept that while we are speaking here today another 5000 small children will die of diarrhea, caused by lack of access to clean water and sanitation. I urge you to take your responsibility here in this Ministerial Conference to act and make history. You will not be alone, because here in this building alone there are thousands of citizens ready to accept their responsibility and make water their business. Let us all become ambassadors of our shared achievements, start a water movement, and make water everybody's business for our sake and the sake of our children.