BONN: The German government will host, in close cooperation with the United Nations, an International Conference on Freshwater from Dec 3-7 here, with a view to finding “sustainable solutions to the water crisis” that is affecting one-third of the world’s population. Conference participants will be representatives of national governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations.

“Germany wishes to make a contribution to solving global freshwater problems and to support preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development” to be held in September 2002 in Johannesburg, says Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

The urgent need for action in the area of freshwater has been emphasized in the Declaration adopted by the United Nations Millennium Assembly in September 2000. The Millennium Assembly set out one of the targets for poverty alleviation as follows:

“We resolve (...) to halve, by the year 2015, (...) the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.”

And further, as a first step: “to stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies”.

Many international and national initiatives and policies on water have been set up and carried out since the UNCED in Rio in June 1992. But, according to Professor Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, one-third of the world’s population still lives in countries with “moderate to high water stress”.

If current consumption patterns continue, two out of every three people on Earth will live in “water-stressed conditions” in 2025, writes Toepfer.

He adds: “Already, more than five million people die each year as a result of poor water quality - ten times the number killed in wars. More than half the victims are children. In short, water is life.”

The conference will, therefore, focus on pointing out solutions that may contribute to reducing by half the number of people without access to clean drinking water by 2015, and to preventing the over-exploitation of limited water resources.

Participants of the Conference Water for Life have formulated policy recommendations from the South Asian experiences which will be taken to the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn. —Dawn/InterPress Service.