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MaximsNewsWATER
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Mr.
Masahiko Koumura, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan announcing
new water policy.
Photo:
© UNICEF
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JAPAN
ANNOUNCES NEW FOREIGN POLICY ON WATER:
25/02/2008
(MaximsNews Network)
UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 25
February 2008 -- Mr.
Masahiko Koumura, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, seized the occasion of
a Water and Sanitation Symposium, jointly organized by UNICEF,
the World Bank, UNDP and the Japan Water Forum assembled today in
Tokyo,
to unveil
Japan’s new foreign policy on water.
“On
this significant occasion of the International Year of Sanitation, I would like
to highlight that the water and sanitation issues need to be addressed on a
global scale, and I consider it crucial that Japan
shows its determination to make further efforts to tackle them with the
international community.” Mr. Masahiko Koumura, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Japan.
With
Japan’s newly announced foreign policy on water,
Japan
continues to show strong political commitment to water and sanitation issues,
which the panelists at the Symposium applauded.
Japan
continues to be a key ally in combating the dismal circumstances of lack of
safe water and basic sanitation throughout the developing world.
Water must be
made a matter of great national priority for Africa and
Asia. Such is the dominant conclusion delivered by high-ranking officials from
UNICEF, the World Bank, UNDP and the Japan Water Forum assembled today in
Tokyo
to discuss and debate the policies and strategies required to meet the dire
water and sanitation needs for millions of people throughout Africa and
Asia.
Mr.
Ravi Narayanan, vice-chair of the Governing Council of the Asia-Pacific Water
Forum, which recently held the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, highlighted that
in addition to the already daunting challenges of water and sanitation facing
Africa and Asia, “climate change impacts add another layer of complexity and
difficulty, in terms of: the unpredictability of precipitation which results in
both excess run off and sudden flooding or shortages and prolonged drought, the
insidious shrinkage of the glacier mass in the Himalayan/Pamir region which is
the source of many of the major rivers in ‘mainland’ Asia and home to close
to a billion people, and the relatively unrecognized effects of erratic
precipitation and lean season river flows on ground water aquifers which act as
sources for water supply in much of Asia.”
Keynote
speakers and panelists of the Water and Sanitation Symposium, jointly organized
by UNICEF, the World Bank, UNDP and the Japan Water Forum also included Ms.
Vanessa Tobin, Deputy Director, Programme Division of UNICEF, Dr. Jacob. A. Kumaresan,
Director, WHO Centre for Health Development, H. E. Mr. Dennis Noel Oduya Awori,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kenya in Japan,
Mr. Kazushi Hashimoto, Executive Director of JBIC, and Mr. Naohiro Yoshizawa,
Project Leader of 1L for 10L Program for Danone Waters of Japan Co., Ltd.,
facilitated by Mr. Hatsuhisa Takashima, Visiting-Professor at Gakushuin
University and Special Adviser to the Rector of United Nations University.
About
Japan Water Forum (www.waterforum.jp)
Japan
Water Forum (JWF) is a nonprofit organization with international perspective.
JWF is set up through cooperation of all stakeholders, including NGOs,
government, private sector and academia in
Japan for the purpose of solving water problems in the world.
*
Japan Water Forum
Attn:
Noriko Yamaguchi TEL：03-5212-1645
FAX：03-5212-1649
e-mail :
press@waterforum.jp
Labels:
MaximsNewsWATER,
United
Nations, U.N., Japan,
water, sanitation,
ministry
of foreign affairs, water
policy, japan
water forum, UNICEF,
World Bank, UNDP
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