According to the Declaration of Human Rights, the individual has the "right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family." Water is essential to achieve this goal and must therefore be made available to everybody regardless of financial status. Enough water must also be reserved for the preservation and natural regeneration of the environment.

This is the background reason why we need rules and principles to regulate the use of shared waters. Decision-makers must become more aware of the fact that water shortages and contamination are among the world's most serious problems. A majority of the world's largest and most important fresh water sources are transboundary.

The absence of effective international and regional agreements as well as institution for water sharing and basin management can lead to dangerous conflicts over water. For millions of people, the local source of water is also an international waterway. The overexploitation of ground water causes a permanent loss of water for future inhabitants in the region.

Our vision must be sustainable and result in a long-term and eco-systematic outlook. It has to be implemented on four levels: local, national, regional and global.

1. The local level, because that is where the people are;
2. The nation level, because the nation states will continue to be the most important political actors;
3. The regional level, because that is where compromises and agreements between countries have to be reached;
4. The global level, because there is a need for principles and rules for international water policy and also for common solutions to global threats.

This is why the meeting in The Hague is so important. We all know that national sovereignty is an extremely sensitive issue. But there is also an increasing awareness that in areas like the economy and environment, we need intergovernmental mechanisms to deal with conflicts.

Now at the beginning of the 21st century, we should take some very determined steps forward to deal with the water problems of the world. The agenda is there. It is time to act.