UN-OHRLLS :: Statement at the 12th International conference on "Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions" on the theme "Water and Health: Problems and Solutions

Organized by the World Information Transfer, Inc., in collaboration with the Government of Ukraine and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

United Nations, 24 April 2003

I thank you for the invitation to address the 12th International Conference "Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions", organized by the World Information Transfer, Inc., co-sponsored by the Government of Ukraine and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The theme for this Conference is "Water and Health: Problems and Solutions". In recent years, the international community's interest in water issues has seen a rapid growth in intensity. Following the United Nations Secretary-General's initiative prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to focus on water as one of the five priority areas and the positive outcome of that Summit last September, the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto played a critical role in looking for solutions to critical water problems in the first decade of the 21st century. The World Water Forum efforts have been commendable in globalizing the water issue and highlighting the universal reality that "water is everybody's issue". I am happy today's Conference provides me an opportunity to bring to your attention how the water issue in its various dimensions touches critically the lives of the ten percent of world's population that inhabit the 49 Least Developed Countries.

Focussing on these Least Developed Countries as identified by the United Nations - and 34 of these are in Africa, I had the honour of submitting to the Kyoto Water Forum a report by the United Nations Office of the High Representative entitled "Critical Importance of Water Issues for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)". We are encouraged that the outcome of the Ministerial Conference in Kyoto paid particular attention to the Least Developed countries and committed to support them.

Deteriorating water quality and dams or engineering works cause loss of habitats and environmental degradation. This affects inland fisheries, which are a major source of protein and other nutrients for a large proportion of the world's population. This in turn produces grave consequences for human development aspects in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Therefore, poor water supply and sanitation lead to high rates of water-related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery.

About two billion people, one third of the world's population, depend on groundwater supplies, but issues of groundwater use and quality have received less attention, particularly in the Least Developed Countries. For example in my own country Bangladesh, 73 per cent of total water withdrawal comes from groundwater. In the Pacific Islands, use of polluted groundwater for drinking and cooking had lead to serious health problems.

Even after the United Nations 'Water Decade' (1981 to 1990), millions of people in the LDCs lack access to safe, clean water and to adequate sanitation. The conferences in Dublin on water and Rio on sustainable development in 1992 explicitly linked these issues directly to environmental concerns, and the 1997 White Paper of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom further linked water and sanitation to the goal of poverty eradication. LDCs on average use per capita about 1-2 per cent of the water used, say in Canada. Despite this, they still face formidable obstacles with regard to water availability and safety, and globalization appears to be deepening their vulnerability.

In this context, I must stress that the issue of water is particularly of great concern to the LDCs. Access to clean water for consumption as well as agricultural purposes provides the foundation necessary for development. To enable LDCs to face their formidable development challenges, certain basic necessities must be present, one of these being access to clean water. The poor and the powerless, especially women and children, are the main victims of lack of access to safe water and to sanitation facilities in the LDCs causing a serious setback in their development efforts.

The Programme of Action (PoA) for the LDCs adopted in Brussels in May 2001 is pertinent in addressing these same pressing issues that face LDCs development. The need for clean water underlines the Commitments identified in the Brussels PoA.

In Commitment 3 out of seven contained in the Brussels PoA - that outlines the building of human and institutional capacities - clean water is prioritised in addressing the issues of health, nutrition and sanitation. The Brussels PoA gives priority to strengthening the provision of social services related to health care, including clean water and sanitation as well as increasing the availability and accessibility of safe drinking water, particularly for rural populations. Actions by development partners committed on that Programme involve enhancing ODA and other forms of support, including technical support, for health, safe water and sanitation and supporting LDCs in ensuring access to and availability of safe drinking water by 2015.

Water is also a focus in Commitment 4 of the Brussels PoA - building productive capacities to make globalization work for LDCs. In terms of physical infrastructure, LDCs are encouraged to provide support to the development and strengthening of critical areas of physical infrastructure including water. Furthermore, in terms of enterprise development - particulary the businesses in the informal sector - the LDCs are urged, inter alia, to improve access to water in addition to energy, land, and credit.

As we all know, water plays a vital role in the agriculture and agro-industries of LDCs. Agriculture is the pivotal sector for these countries, as it underpins food security, foreign exchange earnings, industrial and rural development and employment generation. The Brussels PoA addresses this issue by aiding LDCs in increasing access of the poor, particularly women, to support services and productive resources, particularly land, water, credit and extension services. In addition, the water problem has a direct impact on rural development and food security in LDCs. Our goal should be to strengthen local institutions and enact policies and legislation that provide for more equitable and secure access to ownership and control of natural resources, particularly water.

With more than 615 million people -- 10% of world population, access to clean water in LDCs is clearly a prerequisite in overcoming many of the impediments to their sustainable development. These challenges could be met most resolutely through effective national and international policies that are anchored more firmly in long-term developmental strategies aimed at the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action.

I urge all stakeholders to undertake a clear and concrete course of action to give the 615 million people in LDCs at least a worthwhile chance for their survival and development. Civil society organizations like yours have played a significant and awareness-raising role in this regard and I believe they need to continue and strengthen that kind of involvement for the LDCs. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his address to the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly reminded the international community "Only by multilateral action can we give people in the Least Developed Countries the chance to escape the ugly misery of poverty, ignorance and disease".

I thank you for your attention.

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