Istanbul:
The week-long congregation of heads of states, ministers and experts at the Turkish capital of Istanbul dissolved on March 22 with a pledge to move water high on the national development plans while promoting more effective use of financial resources available from several sources for the sector.
However, the Istanbul Ministerial Statement, a non-binding agreement arrived at between 150 countries at the end of the 5th World Water Forum failed to recognise water as a human right, a growing demand from several countries across the developing world.
Released to coincide with the World Water Day, the statement, which reflected the formal collective voice of the ministers and heads of delegations of the 150 countries, merely said ",it acknowledged the discussions with the UN system regarding human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation. We recognise that access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a basic human need",.
Several pressure groups and activists had been asking for the statement to recognise water as a basic right for humanity, something that the private sector wants to stay clear of. Campaigners had expressed the fear that water utilities managed by private sector can always use the handle of water tariffs to hit at the poor and vulnerable.
Acknowledging the need of fair, equitable and sustainable cost recovery strategies, the statement said it would therefore promote and implement realistic and sustainable financing strategies for water sector, especially water supply, good water quality and sanitation sectors. It acknowledged that exclusively economic approaches and tools cannot capture all social and environmental aspects in cost recovery.
Financing strategies should be based on a best possible use and mix of tariffs for all forms of water services, taxes and transfers to cover needs related to infrastructure development and extension, operation and maintenance, it added.
The statement reaffirms the prior commitments by national governments to achieve the internationally agreed upon goals on water and sanitation such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to improve access to safe and clean water, sanitation, hygiene and healthy ecosystems in the shortest possible time through appropriate policies and adequate financial resources at all levels.
It also agreed to support the implementation of integrated water resources management and improve water demand management, productivity and efficiency of water use for agriculture, strengthen the prevention of pollution from all sectors in surface and groundwater, resolve to work to prevent and respond to natural and human-induced disasters and strive to improve water-related monitoring systems.
Though the recommendations of the statement are non-binding on the member countries, experts say they reaffirm the fact that several countries are collectively seeking solutions to the world's growing water problems and making efforts to promote cooperation among states and organizations.
The 5th World Water Forum saw a record attendance, with 28,000 registered participants including 11 heads of states, hundreds of ministers and parliamentarians, experts and scientists debating on all several aspects of one issue that binds all together: water.
The United Nations has warned that the world is staring at a bleak water future. Rapidly increasing global population levels, widespread mismanagement and rising demand for energy are tightening the grip on the world's evaporating water supplies, with climate change exacerbating the problem.
The growing world population is also a threat to dwindling water supplies. The global population has swollen to 6 billion people and some countries have already reached the limits of their water resources. The water crisis is particularly strong in several parts of Africa and Asia and threatens to unsettle the economic gains achieved by some of them.
As many as 880 million people do not have access to decent sources of drinking water, while 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation. By 2030, the number of people living under severe water stress is expected to rise to 3.9 billion. This figure does not include the impacts of global warming, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Acknowledging that new and adequate resources are needed to achieve the MDGs, the statement calls upon the international community, development partners and private sources of financing to invest resources to complement the efforts made by developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to develop sustainable water resources management and to build the infrastructure base for a sustained socio-economic growth, especially in Africa and least developed countries.