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Presentation

PEACE WITH WATER
Faire la paix avec l’eau
Fare pace con l’acqua
Frieden mit Wasser

Brussels, 12th and 13th of February 2009

General introduction

“Peace with water” is a conference organised by the World Political Forum, in collaboration with European parliamentary groups, based on a proposition by the European Research Institute on Water Policy (IERPE).

“Peace with water” has two different meanings here:

- To stop all aggressions/predations targeted against water resources;
- To prevent and avoid conflicts surrounding propriety and access to water.

The conference will be held on the 12^th and 13^th of February 2009 in Brussels, at the European Parliament. Participation is open to any person or organisation sharing the conference’s objectives. It is however limited to 600 participants because of logistical constraints at the Parliament (number of seats, etc.).

“Peace with water” follows the objectives and overall spirit of the World Water Assembly for Elected Representatives and Citizens (AMECE), held for the first time at the European Parliament between the 18th and the 20th of March 2007. Seeing the success of the later, we believe that “Peace with water” will certainly follow the same path. Furthermore, the “water issue” is nowadays on the top of the European Union’s and the United Nations’ political agenda.

“Peace with water” also finds its roots in the debates developed at the "From Global Warning to Global Politics'" conference, organised by the World Political Forum organised in Turin (Italy) on the 28th and 29th of March 2008, about the priority actions that have to be taken concerning new political architectures, on the continental and global levels, in order to cope with the human, social and economic challenges imposed by climate change.

Presidential committee

The Conference’s presidential committee is composed of:

- Mikhail Gorbachev, President (Mr. Gorbachev is president of the World Political Forum and of Green Cross International, two active organisation on prevention and resolution of water conflicts),

- Mario Soares (former President of the Republic of Portugal and President of the International Committee for a World Water Contract),

- Prince El Hassan of Jordan (whose Foundation is active in the water field), to be confirmed,

- Guy Laliberté (Founder of the Cirque du Soleil and of the «One Drop» Foundation, Canada),

- Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, to be confirmed,

- One Member of the European Parliament.

The IERPE, whose president is Riccardo Petrella (promoter of the “Water Manifesto” and founder of International Committee for a World Water Contract), will ensure the Secretariat-General of the conference’s organisation, in close relation with the secretariat of the World Political Forum.

Objectives

“Peace with water” raises three main objectives:

1. To analyse the critical issues for water within the next 30 years (their causes and consequences):

a. focusing on countries and the main geographical zones of our planet and
b. focusing on all water uses (domestic, agricultural, industrial, etc.).

2. To examine and discuss the most relevant propositions and solutions developed at the international level, while taking into account the commitments of the AMECE 2007 and the resolutions adopted by the European Parliament, especially concerning the human right to water for all.

3. To propose a World Water Protocol (inspired by scenarios developed by the IPCC and other organisations). The definition and approval of a World Water Protocol to be submitted to the international debate and consideration will be the main operational objective of the initiative “Peace with water”. The “Protocol” will focus on conflict prevention, promotion of the right to water for all and safeguard of the global water heritage for the next generations. The Conference therefore intends to contribute to the current international governmental processes aiming at defining and approving the 2012 post-Kyoto agreements.

Four key-issues

The Conference focuses on four key-issues:

Issue 1. The three main water-ill countries of the world for the next 30 years: The United States of America, India and China:

Description. Causes, consequences and risks: scenarios for those three countries. The current applied and/or planned solutions. Will they become the main scenes of “water wars” in the 21st century?

Issue 2. The richest fresh water reservoirs of the world in the 21st century: Canada, the Latin-American continent and Russia:

Will they become the “blue gold exporters” of this century? Will a “petrolisation” of water take place? In 2015, will there be a “world water market” with, as a consequence, a greater and greater influence of a few industrial and financial water trusts on the global water policy? What would be the consequences of such a situation on the security of access to water? What will be the role of the States and their elected representatives?

Issue 3. A water-war-prone region: the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle-East within a bigger geographical zone covering Minor and Central Asia:

This region could stop being an example of water wars, and become the key experimental and successful area of “Peace with Water”. It would be the “test-region” of the international community’s capacity to think, develop and put in place a new political architecture of the world based on cooperative water management.

Issue 4. Africa: a continent to free from thirst.

Africa is a water-rich continent, but it has continuously been impoverished at the economic, technologic and political levels. African populations want to eradicate thirst. They can do it. The best way for “Northern” countries to help them would be to change their own “growth” and “development” policies. Will they achieve it? Are they capable of it? Lessons to be learnt from the EU Water Initiative for Africa.

Experts on each of the above-mentioned issues will prepare a document of information and analysis. They will be shared out before the Conference.

The key-role of Europe

The key actors that currently have a large influence on water policies and practices in the world are European:

- 9 out of the 10 main water companies in the world are European ones;
- the leading bottled water companies in the world are European ones;
- the main private international investment funds focusing on the water sector are European;
- the most important professional, scientific and water research international organisations are influenced by European organisations, etc.

“Peace with water” will therefore particularly examine the role that can be played by the European political institutions and the EU member states in favour of the attainment of the Conference’s objectives.

Expected participants

Following AMECE 2007, the next categories of participants are invited and expected in priority:

- parliamentarians,
- local elected representatives and administrators,
- governments and international/intergovernmental organisations,
- public unions and other concerned unions (agricultural, industrial, …),
- water companies,
- representatives of the education, academic and research areas,
- associations and movements of the civil society.