19/06/2012 09:50

The Dialogues for Sustainable Development debate about the right to Water

Rio+20

CNO Rio+20

The right to water was the winning proposal of the eighth round of debates, which elaborated on three proposals that will be presented to the Heads of States and Governments.

Around 2 thousand members of the civil society present at the session that discussed the planet’s water resources chose the right to water as the most relevant among the ten proposals on the discussion this Monday afternoon. The other recommendations to be taken to the Heads of States and Governments are: (i) ensuring the supply of water by protecting the biodiversity, the ecosystems and water resources (voted by internet users), and (ii) reinforcing the importance of the integrated planning and management of water, energy and land use in all levels, which was chosen by the debaters.

To this latter proposal, the invited specialists added items from two other recommendations: (i) the adoption of more ambitious policies to deal with the water and sanitation needs in a safer way and (ii) the inclusion of the cultural element as a crucial factor in drafting water policies.

The moderator Lucia Newman, from Al Jazeera, opened the talks reminding that oxygen is “the only thing more important than water to living beings” and that, soon, water could become a commodity more valuable than oil.

The director of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Myrna Cunningham Kaim, from Nicaragua, said that the UN’s General Assembly has already recognized water as a human right. However, she emphasized that despite this recognition there are still gaps, such as some cases of discriminatory and racist policies concerning water resources that restrict the access to water of the great majority of the world’s population.

The president of Malawi’s National Association of Small Farmers, Dyborn Chibonga, said that only 10% of his country’s population has access to water. He emphasized that even if most rivers are not perennial; they still depend on rainy seasons and are drying up faster. “It is necessary to adopt water resources and land management policies, as well as laws to protect these resources”, stated Mr. Chibonga.

Jeff Seabright, Coca-Cola’s Water and Environmental Resources’ vice-president, stressed that as water is a finite resource, the challenge is to understand how to solve this problem collectively. “Climate change reflects itself on water resources. We need smart solutions and to raise water to a higher standard for what it represents. If we don’t take care of this, we’ll put our futures in danger, because it is a topic that has an impact on energy, agriculture and other areas”, he added.

The Swedish Ania Grobicki, executive-assistant of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), talked about the importance of water and reminded that today there are already around 2600 organizations in the entire world that dedicate themselves to the water issue.

Grobicki said, also, that there are three important values that should be taken into consideration: opportunity, integrity and solidarity. About solidarity, she highlighted the importance of people learning to work together and mentioned a South African proverb that says: “if you want to walk faster, walk alone. If you want to go farther, walk together”.

The president of Africa’s Energy Services, the Rwandan Albert Butare, raised a crucial issue in his country, water resources management. “There are two worlds, one in which there is water and in which we can talk about water resources management, and another, the one I come from, where we cannot manage what we don’t have. We need to have other objectives besides access to water: to take water to people’s households. For that, it is necessary to optimize the allocation of funds for infrastructure”, defended Butare.

The founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammed Yunus, from Bangladesh, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote economic development though microcredit, talked about the importance of the creation of a new type of business to provide potable water to the places that need the most. He stated that water treatment and its purification process are not very complicated sciences; therefore, it is important to make these technologies accessible to poor societies.

The Canadian David Boys, representative of the Water Service Providers, said that the rich countries deny the right to water to poor countries. He criticized also the governments that, according to him, cannot say they take care of their population when they do not guarantee their right to water. “Governments want to create only a propitious environment for the market to solve the problem. The citizens and the workers are the ones that will impose on the governments what they need”, he affirmed.

Santha Sheela Nair, from India’s Ministry for Agricultural Development, stressed the difference between supply and demand of water today and in the next 20 to 30 years. According to Mrs. Santha, “water should not become a commodity, but should be well allocated”, despite understanding that water pricing is an important action for managing this demand. Mrs. Santha said that “the care for the water resources should not be a national goal, but an international responsibility”.

The Brazilian Benedito Braga, president of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA), regretted that science and technology were not considered in the session, reminding that it was thanks to the advancement in these areas that the gloomy Malthusian predictions, related to mankind’s incapacity of producing enough food for the population, did not come to fruition.

“The more efficient use of water in the agricultural sector (that consumes 70% of the water) depends on technology”, he said. Mr. Braga advocated for the use of big reservoirs to obtain the multiple use of water and proposed an action to advocate for water governance at the UN’s level.

The last speaker was the Frenchmen Loïc Fauchon, World Water Council’s president. “We want more than just recommendations, we want commitments”, he said, emphasizing that “the time for talking is over”.

Mr. Fauchon also said that it is necessary to get the national and local governments to commit, and that we cannot have water resources policies as long as we don’t have the right to water.

Structure of the Dialogues

The Dialogues for Sustainable Development started on Saturday, June 16 and will go on until June 19 at Pavilion 5 of Riocentro. There will be ten rounds of discussions, with ten participants in each. They will focus on topics that have priority on the international agenda of sustainability. At each round, three proposals will be chosen, one by the speakers, one by the audience and one by the internet users. Thirty suggestions with the most votes will be taken directly to the Heads of States and Governments attending the Conference.

The Dialogues have ten topics: