Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to have been invited to address you. This meeting is an important milestone on the road to better water management. I hope and expect that it will provide significant input for the Johannesburg summit next year. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Anan, has asked me - with eleven others - to help him prepare for that summit. My primary assignment will be to demand attention during the Summit for the dire need for improved water management and the way this can contribute to poverty alleviation. So I have come here to learn and listen.
Water and Poverty
In March last year we hosted more than 5000 people, including more than a hundred ministers and over 600 journalists, in my home town, The Hague, to demand the world's attention for the world water crisis. Together we have put water on the map. We emphasized the need for better water management, yes, but as a means not as an end in itself. Water is intricately linked with most of the development challenges we are facing.
I would like to give you several examples. It is generally acknowledged that the reduction of population growth is closely linked to the level of education of women. But where water is not easily accessible, women spend their days walking to distant wells and waiting in long lines - they cannot go to school. Another example is related to health. Worldwide we see a revival of interest for health issues. We, as water experts, probably need to remind ourselves how many of the most urgent health issues are water-related. Millions of people are dying each year of diarrhoea - not a disease for which we need a costly search for a vaccine, but a disease that can be eradicated through a combination of clean water supply, sanitation and hygiene education. Many other diseases are water-borne, as to mention bilharzia, dengue fever and malaria, together responsible for high morbidity and mortality rates. Reduced population growth and healthy people are key pillars for addressing poverty.
For many people the way to improved income levels is also closely related to access to water. Improving poor people's access to water for agricultural production can result in major changes like for example poor women farmers moving up from marginal subsistence farmers to producers for the market giving them and their families access to a decent income. Examples like these are numerous and - there certainly are "water-stories" underpinning health and environmental issues, climate change and soil degradation. All today's major cross-cutting issues play an important role in our efforts to improve water management. This ranges from the public-private sector debate, to globalisation and global governance, the impacts of science and technology, to the resolution of conflicts at sector, basin and transboundary levels.
Improving water management is crucial, not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieve development goals. Because, let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen, the consequences of failing water management hit the poor first and hardest. This was a key conclusion embedded in the declaration of the Ministerial Conference that was linked with the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague last year.
Bonn Conference
I therefore congratulate the organizers of this Conference for having chosen water and poverty as a central theme. With the Johannesburg summit coming up this is very appropriate indeed. Poverty alleviation through improved water management implies recognition of the rights of the poor. In The Hague stakeholders demanded governments to recognize access to water for drinking and productive purposes as a basic human right. Here in Bonn we will have to respond to this demand. However, getting water recognized as a basic human right will be a lengthy UN process which won't render immediate benefits. It is therefore important that we simultaneously use our time and energy to work on practical solutions which will benefit the poor in developing countries.
Water for poverty alleviation means access to water for poor people. Access to water means sharing control through democratic decision making processes. Sharing control implies a seat at the table for all stakeholders. That is what I am talking about when I say that we need to make water everybody's business. I honestly believe that the outcome of our final analysis will be that simple. I am confident that the multi-stakeholder dialogue that is part of this conference will make an important contribution as we have to be more explicit on how we are going to act upon the outcome of our analysis.
Progress and new initiatives
In The Hague I asked the participants to take up the challenge and become ambassadors for water - to help start a water movement and make water everybody's business. In the 18 months since we met in The Hague I have noted significant progress, even though our achievements are still modest compared to our ultimate goal. The Collaborative Council on Water Supply and Sanitation has met in Foz de Iguacu in Brazil and started the implementation of their Vision for water for people - Vision 21 - with the kick off of a sanitation campaign. Our Japanese friends accepted the responsibility for organizing the 3rd World Water Forum when I handed them a huge gold Forum key in Osaka in April last year. We all have been able to witness the great effort with which they are organizing the 3rd World Water Forum. The Global Water Partnership has kicked off implementation of their Framework for Action. I am proud to be their Patron and will gladly launch their toolbox on Integrated Water Resources Management later today.
Next we have to look at some new Dialogue initiatives addressing key challenges that were set as priorities in The Hague. Last August in Stockholm, I had the privilege to launch the Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment. As a Dialogue Ambassador, I urge you to consider how you can contribute to the key issue of achieving water, food and environmental security. A second Dialogue, on Water and Climate, is launched here in Bonn. Both Dialogues are presented in side-meetings later today, one after the other in the same room, and I hope you will join me there.
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, Mr Kofi Anan invited me to contribute towards the success of the Johannesburg summit. My primary objective will be to ensure that water gets a central place on the agenda. I invite you to become my allies and provide me with concrete recommendations and clear suggestions on what you would like the world community to agree on in Johannesburg. I shall make it my job to take your messages forward as we work together towards better water management.
I thank you.