None of the three will be resolved unless all are tackled together. There will always be conflicts while vast inequalities and injustices remain. Poverty should be addressed both in terms of access to education and essential resources, and by confronting the poverty of vision and lack of courage which is preventing those who have knowledge and wealth from changing their own consumption behaviour, and providing more assistance to poor people and endangered ecosystems.

There must be solidarity in international and regional governance; there must be solidarity between sectors and stakeholders; and most importantly there must be genuine political will amongst governments to work in good faith both with their neighbours and with their own people. These people, including often marginalised groups such as women and indigenous peoples, must have a voice, and the information and means necessary to use it.

As we stray further from the goal of international solidarity - with average ODA in OECD nations a far cry from the 0.7% of GNP promised in Rio, and protectionist trade subsidies freezing developing countries out of markets ˜ the need for a review of our ethical system has never been stronger. We need an international ethical framework to guide our path towards sustainable development ˜ just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has guided us towards greater respect and care for all people.

Unless there is progress in the trade negotiations, unless the development finance promises of Monterrey are first translated into real funding flows and productive investment and secondly dramatically increased, sustainable development will not be achieved and our world, all our peoples, this generation and those to come, will be the worse for it.



Water is the single most important element needed for people to achieve the universal human right to "a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family." Without access to clean water, health and well-being are not only severely jeopardised, they are impossible: it is an indisputable fact that people who live without reliable access to water live greatly reduced and impoverished lives - with little opportunity to create better futures for their children.

Let us acknowledge then that access to clean water for basic needs is itself a universal human right, and in so doing accept that we have the corresponding universal responsibility to ensure that the forecast of a world where, in 25 years' time, half of the world‚s population faces water-stress is proven wrong.

Let us go further than simply stating that everyone has a right to water, and give this conviction the weight it deserves by amending the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We have to face up to the threat of a catastrophic water crisis, and counter the appalling statistics with which we are all too familiar, through the adoption of a new spirit of stewardship. Nations must be obliged to act to preserve their own regions‚ water resources, and contribute towards the realisation of the right to water for all people on this planet. To do otherwise would be nothing less than a crime and history will rightly judge current generations harshly for it.

So, we must harness all the forces at our disposal. The world's growing population should be seen not only as one of the causes of the water crisis, but also as the source of its solution. Human solidarity and will is the only force capable of facing a challenge of this magnitude, and must emanate from many different realms.

The developing world's farmers can use water more efficiently; but they cannot afford to do so unless the prices paid for their products are enough to allow them to invest in improving water use. Unless the technologies needed to treat wastewater are made easily available, they will not be applied.

We know that providing basic water and sanitation to the poor will ease their burden of illhealth and start communities up the education ladder which in turn reduces population growth and future demands on the world's resources. But we will not achieve that if we do not provide the financial resources to kickstart the process.

In many communities, the poor simply cannot afford the basic infrastructure needed for those services and will need financial assistance if they are to see their lives improve sufficiently to believe that the political alternatives offered them have any meaning. 70 million more people in Africa lack access to clean water and sanitation today than ten years ago. 12 million people will die this year due to water-related disease, floods, drought and lack of hygiene. It is predicted in a recent study that as many as 76 million people, mostly children, could die of preventable waterborne diseases by 2025. This is shameful, and totally unacceptable.

So the paradigm must change. The global financial system and its leaders must become the servants of sustainable development rather than its masters.

Without water security, social, economic and national stability are all imperiled. This is magnified where water is shared across borders - and becomes crucial where water stress exists in regions of religious, territorial or ethnic tension.

There can be no unilateral solutions to essentially transboundary water problems. This is as true in the Middle East or West Africa as it is regarding the watercourses shared between the United States and its neighbours, or among the many nations of Europe. In all of the world‚s 261 international basins, joint management should be built on a system of effective interdependence; a pooling rather than a restriction of each nations‚ sovereignty.

While armed, inter-state conflicts over water may be unlikely, it must be remembered that these are not the only types of conflicts facing societies in regions of water stress. Water-related conflict does not have to take on the attributes of war in order to be debilitating ˜ it can fester between ethnic groups, ignite between neighbouring farmers or industrialists, and can cause the loss of trust between people and their governments. When water conflict erupts between sovereign states, the victims may not perish on any clearly discernible battlefield, but the people and the watercourse itself will suffer the consequences of the absence of either co-operation or communication between those sharing a basin.

In most cases, however, the practical solutions required are local, reflecting the very geographically and culturally specific nature of water-use. The Post-War/Cold War era of "the bigger the better", which prompted the construction of 45,000 large dams throughout the world, is over. This thoughtless tampering with nature has left a terrible legacy, not least in my own region where thousands of acres of fertile land have been lost, and man-made catastrophes such as in the Aral Sea region cause immeasurable suffering.

My organisation, Green Cross International, promotes the integrated management of water resources, based on a river basin approach. We are carrying out an international programme, in cooperation with UNESCO and regional partners, entitled Water for Peace. This work is currently concentrating on promoting cooperation and participation regarding the management of six transboundary river basins around the world.

In parallel to this initiative, Green Cross is working with several other partners, including the International Secretariat for Water, to prepare a World Assembly of Wisdom for Water in Kyoto in March next year. These activities are aimed at motivating people around the world to work towards Water for Peace, and Wisdom for Water and preparing the basis for an international binding legal agreement and implementation framework committing nations to specific and accepted goals and actions

Water can contribute towards a lasting peace by uniting people in the common and mutually essential pursuit of enough water for everyone and water and food security for the future. There is no miracle cure to any region‚s water shortage, but a package of solutions usually including: improved agricultural efficiency, improved water, better distribution to reduce losses, greater public awareness and participation, a commitment to water equity and rights, information sharing, transparency, and the development of new water supplies through re-use, recycling and desalination. All involve an important value and perception change, from seeing water as a commodity to be exploited, often at the expense of one‚s neighbours and the environment, to seeing the region‚s water as a shared and fragile resource to be used for the benefit of all peoples and as an avenue towards greater cooperation and trust.

We are faced with a mighty challenge. Fortunately we have a history of meeting great challenges using imagination and our irrepressible capacity to adapt, and thousands of talented people around the world are already mobilised to the cause of preserving water for future generations.

Our objectives at least are clear, to achieve, by 2015: