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CRISIS
IN DRINKING WATER & SANITATION: ASIA-PACIFIC WATER SUMMIT: 09/8/2007
(MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
Meeting
of the 2nd Steering Committee of the 1st Asia-Pacific Water
Summit: 1st row: Saif-ud-Din
Soz (Minister of Water Resources of India), Masako Uemoto (Vice President of
Japanese Trade Union Confederation), Han Seung-Soo (UN Secretary General’s
Special Envoy on Climate Change / President of Korea Water Forum), Yoshiro Mori
(Former Prime Minister of Japan / President, Asia-Pacific Water Forum), Margaret
Catley-Carlson (Chair of Global Water Partnership), Erna Witoelar (UN Special
Ambassador for Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific / Vice Chair
of Governing Council of Asia-Pacific Water Forum), Mercedes Lentz (Mnister’s
Adviser of Ministry for the Environment of New Zealand).
2nd
row: Norio Murakami
(President, Google Japan Inc.), Rae Kwon Chung (Director of Environment and
Sustainable Development Division, UNESCAP), Hiroaki Taniguchi (Vice-Minister for
Engineering Affairs, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan),
Sulton Rahimov (Chairman of the Executive Committee of International Fund for
Saving the Aral Sea), Karim Allaoui (Senior Water Resources Specialist, Islamic
Development Bank), Norihito Tambo (Professor Emeritus of Hokkaido University
& the Open University of Japan / Vice President of Japan Water Forum), Ravi
Narayanan (Vice Chair of Governing Council of Asia-Pacific Water Forum / Former
Chief Executive of Water Aid), Hideaki Oda (Councillor to the President of
Asia-Pacific Water Forum), Loïc Fauchon (President of World Water Council),
James Horne (Deputy Secretary, Department of the Environment and Water Resources
of Australia), Liqun Jin (Vice President of Asian Development Bank), Hu Siyi
(Vice Minister of Water Resources of China), Katsusada Hirose (Governor of Oita
Prefecture, Japan), Giasuddin Ahmed Choudhury (Executive Director of CEGIS,
Bangladesh), Masae Wada (Councilor of Housewives Association /
Vice President of Japan Water Forum), Hiroto Arakawa (Executive Director of
Japan Bank for International Cooperation), Yoshinori Imai (Executive Editor of
NHK Japan Broadcasting Cooperation).
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 09 August 2007 – Water
and sanitation problems still figure desperately low in the world's priorities, with millions still underserved and at great cost to national economies.
This is the brunt of the message delivered in
Tokyo
earlier this week by some of the world’s leading authorities on water, while attending the 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the
1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit.
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This group of eminent people are inviting the
region’s political leaders to the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit (to be held in
Beppu, Japan, 3-4 December 2007), making the bid to commit the highest spheres
of the region’s political arena to discuss these issues together, in a
significant event in the lead-up to next year’s G8 Summit.
Former
Prime Minister of Japan Yoshiro Mori (President, Asia-Pacific Water Forum), who
chaired the meeting, stated that, “national governments have been too
insensitive to the need to develop their water resource management systems.”
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Water
supply, sanitation, water-related disaster prevention, pollution – all have
technical solutions but lack the strong political will required to tackle them.
“Water problems can be managed,” highlighted Dr. Han Seung-Soo (President of
Korea Water Forum / Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Climate
Change).
And Mr. Saif-ud-Din Soz (Minister of Water Resources of India)
added,
“the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit can create the political climate
needed for the adoption of practical solutions.”
The water and sanitation
challenge requires “concerted efforts by the [region’s] stakeholders,
including its Governments, its civil societies, and all development partners,”
said Mr. Liqun Jin (Vice President, Asian Development Bank).
And Mr. Kyosuke
Shinozawa (Governor, Japan Bank for International Cooperation) confirmed
JBIC’s ongoing support for enforced financing of the water sector.
The
Asian continent supports 60 percent of the world’s population with only 36
percent of the
world’s water resources and despite great strides in economic growth in some
countries, the region still accounts for an inordinate proportion of suffering,
with some 655 million people still without safe drinking water, 1.9 billion
without access to basic water sanitation, and with some 80% of the world’s
total deaths due to water-related disasters (for the period 2001-2005).
The
Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) is working to increase the region’s access to improved
water supplies and sanitation, protect and restore river basins, and reduce
people’s vulnerability to water disasters.
The APWF champions efforts aimed at
boosting investments, building capacity, increasing public outreach and
enhancing cooperation in the water sector at the regional level.
For
further information, contact:
Asia-Pacific Water Forum Secretariat, c/o Japan Water Forum (JWF), 5th
Floor, 1-8-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo
102-0083.
Tel:
03-5212-1645, www.apwf.org,
Attn: Taeko Yokota / Noriko
Yamaguchi
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Labels: United
Nations, U.N., Asia-Pacific
Water Summit
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