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The "Water World" at the Turn of the Millennium:
An Overview of the 2nd World Water Forum
How can we characterise the "water world" at the turn of the millennium? The most comprehensive picture emerges from the Long Term Vision for Water, Life and the Environment (the World Water Vision for short) (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 2000), which was presented to the 2nd World Water Forum in March 2000 in The Hague. This event, with more than 5 500 registered participants and 80 parallel sessions, was a real landmark. The Forum was the culmination of a, so far, unprecedented, massive public awareness-raising event, with its associated Ministerial Conference and its Statement (Final Report, 2000).
Since the 2nd WWF, water is high on the international political agenda. It is driven by the urgency to face and counteract the perceived water crisis, not to tolerate any longer that close to 3 billion people have no adequate sanitation, that more than 1 billion people have no safe water supply, that well over 3 million people, mainly children, die annually in water-related diseases. This sentiment was underlined in the Forum by statements like: "we know enough, we have enough data, stop talking, act now".
The prevailing intellectual environment of the "water world" entails deep contradictions. On the one hand, innovative approaches are advocated on the basis that the solutions of the world’s water problems are not quick technical fixes, while there are loud voices claiming that there is sufficient knowledge and data available to rely on. While water is on the political agenda and humanity’s water awareness is on the rise, funding for water-related research and education is on the decline. It is a sad fact for example that hydrological observation networks in crucial parts of the world are generally in a worse shape now than 20 or 30 years ago. Likewise, many signs and statements document that the environment, water quality and security are worse off than they were at the time of the Rio Conference. This is our biased "water world".
The intention of the Ministerial Conference in The Hague in March 2000 was to explore new avenues, to seek the dialogue of political decision-makers with the stakeholders of the "water world". With reference to the above contradictions, it is not surprising that water professionals were not considered originally as stakeholders. Finally, a single representative from science and the water professionals had the possibility to address, in five minutes, the assembly of ministers, next to stakeholder representatives of gender, youth, grassroots NGOs, trade unions and the business community. The dialogue with the ministers remained limited to these "new stakeholder" groups.
The motto of the World Water Vision (WWV) consultation and the subsequent Forum was: "Water is everybody’s business". Yes! But first of all it is, and should be, the business of the professional community. How can we otherwise expect that these international forums would really influence water policy, strategy, planning and operation of water resources systems?
It has to be acknowledged that the WWV and the 2nd WWF revealed a credibility gap. The professional community is challenged to close it. Thus, the analysis of the Vision and the Forum is not that of a critic. It is rather a reflection that the professional and scientific community of the "water world" has to develop strategies on how to recapture the leadership in the debate. Water professionals always carry out a societal mandate. Because many previous water development projects are now regarded as "unsustainable", the professionals who built and managed them are considered responsible. But no one questions the wisdom of former social aspirations. This suspicion towards the professional community still exists. It can be seen as a serious hindrance to translate political recommendations into implementable water policies. Leaving out those from formulating policy principles, whom you expect to implement these, contradicts, next to common secure the principle of participative decision-making.
What are the prevailing water issues at the turn of the millennium? The Ministerial Declaration of The Hague summarises the main water-related challenges. It is a fair assumption that this negotiated international document, accepted by 120 ministers and delegations from all over the world, reflects well the "public perception" of water problems and thus defines the "political environment" within which professionals, individuals and organisations alike, have to act. The key statement is "Water Security" for the 21st Century - an appealing slogan, since no one is against security. This term is interpreted in its multiple dimensions:
- Table 1. Key Elements of Water Security for the 21st Century
(Issues defined by the Ministerial Conference March 2000)
- Meeting basic needs (water supply, sanitation, health)
- Securing the food supply (equitable allocation of water for food)
- Protecting the ecosystems (integrity and sustainability)
- Sharing water resource (between different users and between different states)
- Managing risks (floods, droughts, pollution, etc.)
- Valuing water (economic, social, environmental, cultural, including "careful" (socially cushioned), pricing)
- Governing water wisely (good governance and stakeholders involvement)
We may subdivide these seven attributes of "Water Security" into two categories: that of the first three, describing and "politically" prioritising the legitimate water demands, and the remaining four highlighting the "hows" of water resources management. It must not be overlooked that, of these four categories, the three that are underlined: Sharing, Managing, Valuing, Governing, are almost entirely beyond the classical domain of water resources engineering.
The Ministerial Declaration is profuse in defining priority issues and steps to meet the above-outlined challenges.
The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was adopted as the framework for action to be taken. IWRM is defined as the approach which takes into account social, economic and environmental factors and integrating surface water, groundwater and the ecosystems through which they flow. Quantity and quality aspects are to be considered.
"Water Security" and the sustainable management of water resources are treated as synonymous. Collaborative partnerships across whole society and coherent institutional
policies to counteract fragmentation of the sector are called for.
The Ministerial Declaration reiterates the decision of the Commission of Sustainable Development of the UN to call on the UN System, its specialised agencies and programmes, to develop appropriate indicators and periodically reassess the state of freshwater resources as well as to document this in subsequent World Water Development Reports.
The Ministerial Declaration realises the need for a new strong "water culture" to be developed through the cooperation of all stakeholders.
"Best practices" are to be identified through enhanced research and knowledge generation, knowledge dissemination and sharing among individuals, institutions and societies. This includes, not only technological transfer and capacity-building in developing countries, but also strengthening humanity’s capability to cope with water-related disasters.
Beyond any doubt, the 2nd WWF set the stage for entering the 21st century of the "water world". The seven challenges identified in The Hague became the basis to structure the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), the ongoing UN-wide effort launched by the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, at the 2nd WWF. This programme aims to create the database, but also to develop the methodologies and concepts of policy-relevant assessment of the resource, its use and protection.
The 2nd WWF, through its success of bringing water to the political conscience of the world, proved the viability of "composite events", having parallel and interactive meetings of various stakeholder constituencies. Ever since, all major water-related events, including the WSSD, have been following this model.
