Istanbul will host the Fifth World Water Forum, from 15 to 22 March, which will revolve around the overarching themes of ‘Bridging divides for water’. The meeting aims to promote better understanding and the exchange of information between water users, policy makers and operators at local, regional and international level, with a view to working out solutions to global water issues. The event will also provide an opportunity to review progress to date on attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, particularly the key goal of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The European Commission will be represented in Istanbul by Helmut Bloech, deputy head of unit at DG Environment’s Directorate for Protection of Water and Marine Environment and by its Director, Peter Gammeltoft, for the high-level ministerial session, on 19 and 20 March.

The forum will be attended by representatives from some 150 countries, public and private water sector operators, international organisations and non-governmental organisations to debate global water issues and to try to work out practical solutions ⁽¹⁾. “Water must become a priority,” notes Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council (WWC), who regrets the sector’s lack of means. He would have liked to see “all the money spent on research and investments in cell phones over the last decade allocated to water. We can survive without cell phones, but not without drinking water”.

‘EXEMPLARY’ EU

The EU plans to appear as a model in Istanbul. Sources close to the European Commission acknowledge that not everything is perfect but the Union has set up the policy and legislative instruments needed for sound resource management and improvement of water quality. The main pillar of this corpus is the Water Framework Directive adopted in 2000 (see separate article) ⁽²⁾. The Commission notes – with satisfaction – that this directive is seen as a model all over the world, mentioning for example that China considers it a “very useful” instrument for all aspects of water management, from planning to purification and shared basin management.

The EU will also point out in Istanbul that it has included the climate change issue in its approach to water both internally and at international level with the publication, in June 2007, of a green paper on adaptation to climate change in Europe ⁽³⁾, followed by a communication on addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the EU ⁽⁴⁾.

On the commitments made under the Millennium Development Goals, the EU will present the first achievements of the Water Facility for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states put in place under the EU Water Initiative, announced at the Johannesburg Earth Summit (September 2002). Several projects are already under way (see separate article) thanks to support from the €500 million fund.

JUST A DIALOGUE BODY

The World Water Forum, of which Professor Riccardo Petrella is very critical (see interview), is in fact dominated by the water industry and has no decision making or political power. “That is indeed its weakness,” notes Sergey Moroz of the WWF, who has a more finely shaded opinion of the forum. “It is the only international meeting and dialogue body until the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses comes into force,” he explains. Moroz gives the companies involved in the forum “the benefit of the doubt”: the WWF is involved in many partnerships with certain big companies in the water sector, he adds. These are increasingly addressing water issues in the framework of corporate social responsibility, which in itself is very positive. That said, however, the forum is not a body where policy decisions are made. It lacks a global tool, making the entry into force of the 1997 convention urgent. This will require ratification by 35 signatories, which only 16 have done so far. The WWF will therefore argue in Istanbul for an acceleration of the ratification process. The urgency of adapting to climate change, the necessity of managing waterways on a sustainable basis, ie maintaining the right quantity to ensure good water quality at all times and the survival of the ecosystem, will be the two other messages the NGO will deliver at the forum.

“We can survive without cell phones, but not without drinking water”  

Background

The World Water Council (WWC) was set up in 1996 in Marseille (France). Its mission is to raise awareness of critical water issues at all levels of decision making. It also aims to promote the conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on earth. Its work focuses on four themes: the right of access to water and sanitation for all; making local stakeholders accountable, strengthening institutions, decentralisation and public participation; improved access to financing; and human resources (access to information, training, development and adaptation of know-how to local situations). The World Water Forum, organised every three years by the WWC, is the biggest water-related event in the world. It has already met four times: in Marrakesh (1997), The Hague (2000), Kyoto (2003) and Mexico City (2006).

⁽¹⁾  The programme is available at www.worldwaterforum5.org/fileadmin/WWF5/Forum_Programme/WWF5_Programme_Overview.pdf
⁽²⁾ Directive 2000/60/EC
⁽³⁾  COM(2007)354
⁽⁴⁾  COM(2007)414