By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 21 2006 (IPS)

An international conference on water management opened in the Swedish capital Monday with the grim prediction that both rich and poor nations are heading towards a crisis unless positive steps are taken to efficiently conserve one of the world’s life-sustaining resources.

“What we need are concrete measures that clearly identify what should be done, by whom and by when,” Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told a gathering of nearly 2,000 professionals, including technicians, scientists, government officials, businessmen and representatives of civil society.

The annual conference – the 16th in the series – is taking place during “World Water Week”, with the participation of over 100 inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations this year. The overall theme is: “Beyond the River- Sharing Benefits and Responsibilities.”

Berntell said water is affected by decisions in many areas outside of the water sector itself. “Water is part of agriculture, energy, transport, forestry, trade, financing, and social and political security,” he noted.

Berntell quoted the recently released “World Water Development Report” – a joint assessment by 24 U.N. agencies – which warned that “financial resources for water are stagnating, both in terms of official development assistance (ODA) and non-concessional lending. And only a small proportion (about 12 percent) of these funds reach those most in need.”

Secondly, he said, the target to develop integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans by 2005 was only reached by about 12 percent of countries, although many began the process.

Last week, the environmental organisation World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said that most rich countries – like their poorer counterparts – will also face a water crisis unless there are drastic changes in management and governmental policies.

“Supporting large-scale industry and growing populations using water at high rates has come close to exhausting the water supplies of some First World cities and is a looming threat for many, if not most others,” WWF warned.

The significant reduction in water supplies in rich nations was attributed primarily to two factors: decline in rainfall and increased evaporation of water due to global warming; and loss of wetlands.

Additionally, European countries bordering the Atlantic have been suffering from droughts, while water resources in the Mediterranean region are being depleted by the boom in tourism and irrigated agriculture.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that agriculture is the world’s largest water consumer, with irrigation claiming close to 70 percent of all freshwater appropriated for human use.

“Any water crisis will therefore also create a food crisis,” according to the Rome-based U.N. agency. “So while progress has been made in fighting agriculture, the agriculture sector’s water use will have to become more efficient in order to meet the food needs of everyone in the world.”

One of the conclusions reached at the World Water Forum in Mexico last March was that water is also “a political issue.”

As such, the overall management of water must be and remain in the hands of elected officials and of those in charge of public decisions. “When politicians disregard their responsibilities over water, water becomes a risk.”

“In the perspective of our global population reaching 9 billion people in 2050, and with the first signs of an obvious global warming, more risks for tensions over water will certainly arise in the coming decades,” the World Water Forum warned.

According to the United Nations, over 1.1 billion people still lack access to improved water resources, nearly two-thirds of them living in Asia.

Poor women are particularly affected, according to a report released Monday by the Sri Lankan-based International Water Management Institute, which notes that they are excluded from water management decisions while at the same time they are primarily responsible for hauling drinking water and play a major role in small-scale farming.

Berntell said that the concept of World Water Week has three objectives: to build capacity and increase knowledge among and between different actors; to promote partnerships and alliances between individuals and organisations; and to review the implementation of actions, commitments and decisions.

The conference, he pointed out, will also explore three water-related complexes. Firstly, that livelihoods around the world are related increasingly to trans-boundary and trans-basin water contexts and a global society with an urban majority. Given this, what benefits are, or could be, generated, distributed and shared by society?

Secondly, natural resource use and waste disposal are linked intimately to human existence. A profound resource challenge is therefore to feed the world without compromising vital ecological functions.

Thirdly, since natural disasters expose society’s vulnerabilities to the forces of nature, it is impossible to plan for extreme events. But planning to cope with emergencies and disaster situations is not impossible.

“We have to seek practical solutions that will work under different socio-economic, climatic, environmental and political conditions, and ensure that this does not become an academic or theoretical exercise,” he declared.

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