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Key Concern Areas:
WEHAB and the Preparatory Phase before Johannesburg
The preparatory phase of the Johannesburg summit reflected several new tendencies in the international, political and, in particular in the resource and environment related arena. Obvious government reluctance on one side to make binding commitments on deadlines, quantified objectives and financial allocations and the growing importance of pressure groups, NGOs and direct stakeholder involvement on the other side, harangued a new type of summit. Already the evolution of the world water forums show that the hitherto separated events of scientific conferences, public rallies and ministerial conferences tend to merge into a new type of articulation of concerns, objectives, commitments and strategies. The WSSD certainly cannot be seen and separated from its side events. (As far as water is concerned the Water Dome in Johannesburg can be clearly identified as a melting pot of all stakeholders and their ideas).
The "unorthodox" preparatory phase for a new style summit is the background of a document summarising the key concern areas: Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity (WEHAB). An inter-agency working group of the UN system was entrusted to develop what may be called a background or position paper. The five key areas of WEHAB again reflect a human-centred focus adopted and maintained during the WSSD.
In the subsequent drafts of the water chapter of the UN’s WEHAB document the role of water in relation to all other four key concern areas are described and put it into the strategic axis of the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable development. The human-centred objectives relating to water supply and sanitation, the most urgent need to redefine and to reform water governance and integrated water resources management as the endorsed approach to achieve it, are shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Water – the Link and Key in Sustainable Development
Source: WEHAB document |
It is a fair statement that the chapter on water from the WEHAB document served as the most important basis for reaching the water-related objectives in the WSSD. Many of the priority actions identified during the Bonn Conference and the Bonn Keys are reflected in this document, thus clearly showing the "seepage path" and how the thoughts, concerns and dedication of the subsequent events and preparatory documents channelled thoughts to the WSSD.
