Forum to tackle global water issues

Mai Walette (center) and Sid Ahmed Ag Ahmouden (left) of Mali, which suffers from severe water shortages and droughts, leave the stage after speaking at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, France, on Monday. [Fu Jing / China Daily]

Governments and organizations worldwide should cooperate more to tackle water issues so that the world can develop in a more sustainable manner and more people can meet their basic needs, officials said at the 6th World Water Forum.

"The conference is an important opportunity to find solutions to help us to attain millennium goals," Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the UN, said in a video message at the event.

The World Water Forum is a major international event in which groups discuss water-related issues. It has been held every three years since 1997. More than 1,000 high-level stakeholders attend this year's event in Marseille, France, from March 12 to 17. Around 159 ministerial delegations and more than 80 ministers from around 170 countries will discuss water-related issues such as food security and the environment.

Progress has been made on addressing water issues, but there is still room for improvement, Ban said. Last week, the world met a target of cutting in half the number of people who lack access to drinking water, the secretary-general said.

But water issues remain an issue for a large part of the world's population: 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to adequate sanitation, and 884 million people do not have access to clean water, according to a 2011 report by the United Nations. Every minute, three children die in the world because of water-related problems or diseases due to the lack of sanitation.

Chen Lei, minister of water resources, will lead the Chinese delegation for the forum. The delegation incudes government officials, experts from academia and enterprises engaged in water-related projects.

"The water crisis has become a bottleneck for sustainable development across the globe, and there needs to be concerted efforts among nations to come up with solutions," Chen told China Daily in an exclusive interview before leaving for France. During the one-week event, China will talk with Japan and the Republic of Korea about a cooperation mechanism at the ministerial level. China will co-host a conference with the European Union to exchange experiences and explore solutions to water-related issues of common interest between the two sides.

China will also share with other participants its experiences in water management, such as improving food security though better irrigation systems, according to the forum's agenda. For example, low-pressure pipeline water conveyance irrigation technologies have helped decrease water utilization by 24 percent in China and have played an important role in the development of sustainable agriculture.

Moussa Amadou, president of the Regional Association for Irrigation and Drainage in North and Central Africa, expects to obtain more water-saving irrigation solutions and water-harvest technologies for African countries - especially for his country, Nigeria - at the five-day forum.

"China and Israel, which are famous for these solutions, are our targets of learning during the forum," Amadou told China Daily.

Amadou said African countries have been heavily affected by climate change and chronic droughts in recent years, and food security has been threatening Africans for many years. "So it is extremely important for us to get accesses to water," said Amadou, whose organization has already entered into cooperation with North China's Hebei province on irrigation and water harvest projects.

The world has made progress in tackling water issues, but the progress has been too slow, said Francois Fillon, prime minister of France.

The industrial revolution has shown its limit because it does not pay attention to pollution and social development, he added. "Water is the issue we have the means to tackle today. We have to move to a new developing model," he said.

You can contact the writers at diaoying@chinadaily.com.cn and fujing@chinadaily.com.cn.