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The increasing world population associated to a better standard of living resulted on higher demand for drinking water, for industries and for
agriculture. Despite the water shortage in some regions of the world, if we co-operate and properly manage our land and water resources, the world will still progress and meet the needs of the growing population.
The wise management of the land and water resources will prevent the decline of water and food supply. The environment will suffer less and the economical development will not decline.
The technical managerial skills will enable to produce more goods using less land and less water. Skill and financial resources, in fact, should aim at
increasing food production by using water and land more efficiently.
Investment in water and health care, sanitation and food production will decrease health problem, especially in developing countries. The availability
of fresh water in adequate quantity is the key for a long-lasting sustainable development. Co-operation at the national as well at the international level is essential in the dissemination of the information on
fresh water availability, on water technologies as well as on land and water management for sustainable development.
To achieve these goals, basin water catchment planning and management is most essentially. To meet the challenge for the ten billions individuals
projected to exist by 2050, we expect to expand our knowledge on various aspects of water management and use, only in this way we can cope with the expected five folds increase of water for industries in addition to
other uses...
However, technology will help approach to solve water shortage by cleaning of our waste-water, increase our ability to use, whenever possible, the same
drop of water again and again before it flows back to the sea.
At present, technology is available to convert polluted water, as well as, saline water into fresh water. The solar distillation plants, presently
little used, will be adopted on a larger scale, and so on.
The cost of water, however, will increase more and more. Water scarcity may be the cause of external and internal conflicts. We already see the sign of
this.
Many arid and semi-arid countries are presently suffering from water shortage, drought, lowering of the water levels in boreholes, drying-up of
springs, salt water intrusion along the coastal lines, as well as due to uncontrolled irrigation. The contamination of the aquifers, lakes, rivers and all the other open water bodies, is quite frequent in Europe as
well as in many other parts of the world. Using appropriate technology and careful management of land and water resources, we can alleviate this serious problem.
The Relegen Siddhi Watershed Development
We have already some beautiful examples on how a careful land management can revert an arid land in lash-green zone. The development of agriculture by
proper watershed management have transformed the arid land surrounding the villages of Relegen Siddhi, in the state of Maharashtra, India, in a beautiful agricultural land. Before the implementation of the
development of the watershed catchment, there were only 60 acres of land under irrigation, after constructing various types of water structures to induce more recharge and to prevent run-off from the catchment, the
irrigated land is now more than 1200 acres.
The village was previously depending on imported food, now it is self-sufficient and exports various types of fruits and vegetables. People are now
well off economically! The rainfall in the area is only in 300 mm per year. The work for the watershed management was initiated and supervised by a committed man with little experience in agriculture development but
with a great, great drive to transform his poor village into a self- sustained entity.
The land transformation called the attention of many people and many international organisations and NGO’s to study the very successful model
implemented by Mr. Anna Hazari, who promoted this ”miracle”.
Networking and globalisation
Now, the question arises: how can we devulgate information like this? How can we know what is happening in various parts of the world regarding the use
of land and water resources in a sustainable manner? How can we transmit information on appropriate technologies for developing natural resources? How can we classify, store and retrieve information regarding
various aspects of development activities aiming at increasing food productivity? Etc.
Fortunately, we are living an incredible historical moment, characterised by a very fast transmission of information wherever is needed. Regarding the
globalisation and dissemination of information for sustainable land and water development, I am happy to inform you that I have just returned from Sweden where I participated at the Stockholm Water Symposium which
took place between the 9th ant 12th of this month with the participation of 850 delegates from 80 countries.
The Symposium was followed by the two-days Global Water Partnership (GWP) meeting, during which a plan for the coming years was set up. The plan is
aiming at collecting and disseminating information on water and land related aspects. The GWP has established a network covering nearly all developing countries and part of developed countries. GWP is constituted by
regional Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) and by national and local organisations.
One of the main scopes is to identify priorities and gaps in service provision for integrated water resource management for household, urban areas, for
food production, water and environment, and ecosystem. Associated programs will be linked and developed regarding various water development aspects. In particular, GWP has identified the following 6 priority areas:
- Enabling environment, institutions and management instruments for IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management)
- Capacity building for IWRM
- Water quality management
- Water conservation in agriculture
- Benchmarking of utilities performance
- Urban environmental sanitation
World Water Vision for the 21st Century
The GWP delegates were informed that World Water Council organisation has established the ”World Commission on Water for the 21st Century” to assess water resources and devise solutions.
The main task of the commission is to prepare the ”Long-term Vision for the 21st Century” program. The Commission will address questions such as the impact of climate change on variability of rainfall and desertification; the most likely scenarios for population growth and spatial deployment; ways of reducing losses in monsoon areas; water harvesting in semi-arid and arid zones; as well as the possibilities of desalinisation, and new underground water that could be tapped. The Commission will also address pollution and its treatment through incentives, and new technologies such as a single cell protein technologies; the re-use of city waste-water for high value agriculture; and techniques to transform water efficiency in agriculture – to get more crop per drop.
The role of civil society, local communities, women, the private sector and other institutional actors must figure in this vision of the future. And,
all of this must be related to real action on the ground if the ”vision” is to become a reality.
The remarkable scope of experience and positions represented on the Commission would help raise awareness about the issues and promote action in
concert with local communities and national governments and international bodies around the world.
The Commission is located in Paris at the UNESCO headquarters and is co- sponsored by FAO, UNDP, UNEP, WMO.
Conclusion
The GWP has been established only two years ago and has became a major initiative on water resource development, and it is considered to be a major
international organisation to help bring about sustainable management on water resources in developing countries.
It is also supported and inter-related with associated programs regarding water projects, publication, water technology and other technical
documentation. 67 countries have already accessed the available information. The number of the organisations associated with GWP is increasing rapidly as well as is increasing the number TACs.
GWP is a clear example of global fast dissemination of information for sustainable land and water development, and it is expected to bring enormous
benefits, especially to developing countries afflicted by poverty, lack of water and irrigated land.
The World Bank, the UN organisations as well as some developed countries financially support GWP. GWP is expected to be self-sustained financially with
the contribution of the countries associated with the various TACs.
I do believe that this global network will encourage the creation of all the networks, especially those interested in fields related to social-economic
development for the up-lifting of individuals as well as communities and regions in the various parts of the world. Networking at the global level will also be a powerful tool to spread philosophical concepts,
science, religions and other subjects discussed in this conference.
Thank you!
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