FORUM MONDIAL DE L'EAU, ISTANBUL.

Bonne nouvelle!

Le rapport de l'AFP (22 mars 2009) ci-dessous affirme que le Forum Mondial de l'Eau est organisé par le Conseil Mondial de l'Eau, une organisation basée en France et dont les fonds proviennent principalement de l'industrie de l'Eau.

En complément, veuillez aussi trouver une dépêche canadienne (CNW Telbec) du 22 mars concernant l'opposition d'une vingtaine de pays contre la déclaration ministérielle issue de ce Forum.


AFP:

World water forum pledges action

ISTANBUL (AFP) — A seven-day focus on the world's water crunch wound up
Sunday with a pledge by more than 100 countries to strive for clean
water and sanitation for billions in need and fight drought and flood.

But some countries criticised the cornerstone outcome of the fifth World
Water Forum as flawed while activists dismissed the event itself as a
"trade show."

The declaration, coinciding with World Water Day, was issued at the end
of a three-day ministerial meeting, climaxing the biggest-ever
conference on the planet's freshwater crisis.

"The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes, including
population growth, migration, urbanisation, climate change,
desertification, drought, degradation and land use, economic and diet
changes," the statement said.

It set out a roster of non-binding recommendations, including greater
cooperation to ease disputes over water, measures to address floods and
water scarcity, better management of resources and curbing pollution of
rivers, lakes and aquifers.

Some countries tried to beef up the statement so that it recognised
access to safe drinking water and sanitation as "a basic human right,"
rather than a "basic human need," which was the final text.

They were blocked by Brazil, Egypt and the United States, delegates said.

Around 20 dissenting countries signed on to a separate statement to
spell out their position after the conference's close. A Venezuelan
delegate said they included Bangladesh, South Africa and Spain.

The textual difference, which has political and legal ramifications, is
being debated under the UN Convention on Human Rights. Numerous
countries, led by Latin America, have already enshrined access to water
as a right in their constitution.

The World Water Forum is held every three years, and has gained in
importance as a meeting place for debating the globe's amplifying
problems of freshwater.

At least 25,000 policymakers, water specialists and grassroots workers
took part in this year's event, a record attendance.

Campaigners representing the rural poor, the environment and organised
labour on Saturday attacked the Forum as a vehicle for water
privatisation and called it for to be placed under the UN flag.

"We demand that the allocation of water be decided in an open,
transparent and democratic forum rather than in a trade show for the
world's large corporations," said Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the
president of the UN General Assembly.

The Forum is staged by the World Water Council, a French-based
organisation whose funding comes in large part from the water industry.

Providing access to drinking water and sewerage, conserving resources
and building reservoirs and dikes to cope with water stress and water
excess would cost rich countries alone around 200 billion dollars per
year, according to estimates.

"Mobilising the resources... is likely to be one of the greatest
challenges we face," said US delegate Alonzo Fulgham.

The ministers said they would "promote effective use of financial
resources from all sources" but did not state a preference for whether
water should be in public or private hands.

This is a thorny issue, because campaign groups say utilities that are
in private hands ramp up tariffs, hitting the poor especially.

However, the ministers said they "acknowledge" that the costs of
recovering water investment had to be "fair, equitable and sustainable."

Around 880 million people do not have access to decent sources of
drinking water, while 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper
sanitation, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) said in a report on Tuesday.

By 2030, the number of people living under severe water stress is
expected to rise to 3.9 billion, a tally that does not include the
impacts of global warming