WITHOUT WATER, WE HAVE NO FUTURE.

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Of all the water on our Earth, approximately 97.5% is salty. Of the remaining
2.5% of freshwater, approximately 70% is held in the polar icecaps.
Less than 1% of our Earths freshwater, or 0.007% of all its water, is accessible
for human use. (WHO)
In 1950, the total human population on our Earth was less than one billion
(1,000,000,000).
Today, in 2002, the approximate human population is greater than five billion
(5,000,000,000).
By the year 2050, it is estimated by the UN that the human population on our
earth will exceed ten billion (10,000,000,000)
To adequately feed our human population in the year 2025 will require an
additional 3,800 km3/yr of fresh water. By the year 2050 we will require even
more.
Lack of clean water and adequate sanitation services and poor living conditions
are the prevailing environmental problems faced by children in developing
countries. (UNICEF)
The shift from rural to urban living in all parts of the world is causing vast
numbers of people to live in crowded settlements without adequate sanitation,
safe drinking water, or environmentally safe living conditions. (UNICEF)
Each year, approximately 3.4 million (3,400,000) people, mostly children, die
from water-related diseases and some 2.2 million (2,200,000) die from diarrhea
diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
(WHO)
In cities in the developing world, up to 60% of the purified and piped water is
unaccounted for because of leakages and illegal connections. (HABITAT)
Irrigated agriculture accounts for about 70% of water withdrawals, and up to 90%
in the dry tropics. Water withdrawals for irrigation have increased over 60%
since 1960.
One-third of countries in water-stressed regions of our Earth may face severe
water shortages this century. By 2025, two-thirds of our Earths population is
likely to live in countries with moderate or severe water shortages. (EU, UNEP)
We cannot invent more water.

A Radical Shift in Thinking Is Required.

Policies and practices that worked for a human population of less than one billion,
mostly rural people, does not work for our more than five billion and ever
increasing human population.
Today over 1.1 billion people lack satisfactory access to safe drinking water and
another 2.5 billion are without adequate sanitation. As a direct result, some five
million people die annually from preventable water borne disease 10 times the
number killed in wars around the globe. One-third of the worlds population live
in countries currently facing a water shortage, a number that could increase to
two-thirds (or about six billion people) by 2025. Besides human suffering, our
planets ecological base is at risk through permanent destruction of its
bloodstreamour water.
Water as a Catalyst for Development
Access to adequate water is a necessary condition for socio-economic
development by being fundamental for health, food production and industrial
production. The risks to development from a threatened, deficient or in-sufficient
water resource and water security failures are certain. The strong driving forces
at work threaten to exacerbate current problems. In view of the far reaching
ambitions expressed in the Millennium Declaration to reduce poverty and hunger,
it is urgent that we all understand the crucial character of water security for
development.
Poverty remains the biggest hurdle to reaching sustainable development. The
magnitude of poverty is staggering as are the human sufferings. Pervasive and
mass poverty must be reduced in order to build a stable society where water and
other forms of security can be enjoyed by its members. Effective programs of
poverty alleviation are urgently needed, and water plays an obvious key role in
this regard.
A very significant percentage of the income of the poor is used for food. Can
water development help in making land more productive in increasing food
production and improving the food availability and nutritional status of the poor?
What types of policies are required? We must work together to find the answers
to these societal questions we face.
Increased food production to feed a growing humanity will be an issue of water,
nutrients and pesticides, and incorporate difficult compromise building. For
irrigated agriculture, local water loops are promising where urban wastewater,
after treatment and reclamation, can be reused for peri-urban irrigation. In poor
countries, the choice between increased food production and food import is
difficult, both due to lack of foreign currency and to their need for guarantees.
However, since nutrients can safely be recycled from the wastewater, ecological

sanitation might have dual benefits, not only for poor developing countries but
also for developed countries.
Water Pollution Abatement
After three decades of water quality management efforts, the inability all over the
world to halt water pollution remains a serious failure. The crisis of water pollution
is increasing steadily in the developing world.
Water is the victim of economic growth due to the widespread willful neglect of
the fact that waste production is intimately linked to the wealth generating
processes but degrades the water for other users dependent on the same
systems.
Every cubic meter of contaminated wastewater discharged into water bodies and
water courses spoils between eight and ten cubic meters of pure water.
(UNESCO).
In developing countries, between 90% and 95% of sewage and 70% of industrial
wastes are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water
supply.
Water must become part of the political agenda since it is a key element in
poverty eradication, health improvement, nutrition of malnourished people and an
army of unborn babies, and protection of indispensable ecological services and
regional development. Water management strategies, whether at the national,
international or project level, should focus more on the interdependence between
the environment and socio-economic development. Strategies should clearly
visualize how effective water management policies contribute to a more
sustainable economic and social development. The language in such strategies
should be clear and unambiguous - only then can policy and decision-makers
use the information appropriately.
Increasing the Status of Water
It is imperative to increase the status of water in society and among politicians
and policy makers. The meager and simplistic appearance of water issues on the
high level global political agenda is nothing less than pathetic. It is imperative to
generate in the political establishment a shift in thinking as regards water issues
and how they may be challenged. Water's deep importance for development is a
message of fundamental importance to be propagated at the highest possible
political level - a major pedagogical task.
Downstream stakeholders are increasingly being left without usable water. In
discussions of compromise building, mutual respect between different
catchments stakeholders is essential. In this process, polluting industry and
agriculture must contribute. While several major multinational firms have now
entered such a process, the developing world's dynamic, small- to medium-sized

industry remains extremely difficult to get on board. The link to poverty

eradication and higher incomes through large-scale employment from a multitude
of small-scale industries poses enormous problems, and there are examples of
court decisions to close down such industries that cannot be enforced due to a
lack of societal acceptance. The court decisions are counteracted by a soft
political and regulatory system, and the industries reopen.
At the same time, a set of positive signals was reported in the developed world. A
Global Compact Forum is being formed for multinational industry in cooperation
with the United Nations. A European Water Framework Directive, constituting a
new legal instrument, and prescribing clean water bodies and aquifers by 2015,
was recently adopted by the EU Parliament and the EU Council.

It is Time to Move On!

In a water-dependent world with strong driving forces at work, it is almost criminal
to continue to treat water as if it is a ubiquitous and robust resource, accessible
to everybody and everything without any cost and without any problematic sideeffects. A more adequate attention to water pollution abatement is imperative, in
order to avoid water pollution-driven convulsions that will otherwise threaten the
world community in the coming decades.
Achieving water security is essential for sustainable development but is not
achievable without a radical shift in thinking and radically improved governance.
Decision makers in different sectors of the society and policy makers still tend to
keep compartmentalized thinking and behavior despite having preached the
advantages of integrated water resources management approaches for a long
time. This makes the building of bridges through dialogue between
interdependent societal sectors particularly urgent.
Basically, stakeholders need to experience the value of giving up the outdated
compartmental approaches. Incentives for change should be linked to personal
benefits and hopes for a better life. Providing methods, equipment and
technologies to improve water treatment is vital. We have technologies to treat
wastewater effectively. We have technologies to desalinize salt water so that we
can drink it and use if for irrigation. We have equipment and technologies for all
types of water treatment and restoration. My work has taken me to many
countries, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, and now, Mexico.
Communications and consultations are ongoing with even more countries. We
want to work with you, the people in the government and the people of Mexico.
Let me end by emphasizing our need to develop visions for water resource
management that extend to entire regions. It is vital to achieve equity - and the
prosperity that can flow from best management of a common resource.
Thank you.