The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Asia-Pacific water summit, first of its type, is going to be held in Japan early next month with a view to mobilising 'the political will' and 'commitment' to put water high up in the national agenda of the countries in the region. According to a recent media report, the first Asia-Pacific Water Summit will be held in Beppu in Oita prefecture of Japan on December 3 and 4 and around 300 people including top-level leaders from various sectors like industry, education, agriculture and local organisations besides media from 49 countries are expected to attend the summit and deliberate on 'Water Security: Leadership and Commitment'. Besides, stakeholders involved in water and sanitation issues including international organisations are expected to participate in the summit. As reported, the summit is being convened by the steering committee for the Asia-Pacific Water Summit and the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, under the chairmanship of former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori, in collaboration with the APWF's governing council, chaired by Professor Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large of Singapore.

Some issues of concern such as climate change, water sharing, water for development and ecosystem, water-related disaster management, developing knowledge and lessons increasing local capacity, monitoring investments and results, private sector water mandate will feature in the deliberations of the meet. Parallel to the regional water summit, an Open Event Forum will be held also in Beppu from December 1 to 5 preceding the two-day summit with broad participation from the civil society and stakeholders. The Asia-Pacific Water Forum is working to increase the region's access to improved water supplies and sanitation, protect and restore river basins, and reduce people's vulnerability to water disasters. The APWF champions efforts aimed at boosting investments, building capacity, public outreach and enhancing cooperation in the water sector at the regional level.

At present 700 million people of the Asia-Pacific region do not have access to safe drinking water and the region suffers disproportionately from water-related diseases, and degraded land-water ecosystems significantly threaten water productivity, as pointed out by Mr. Yoshiro Mori, who also asserts - 'We can turn the situation around if we can agree to make water a high priority in our development plans, if we acknowledge that the access to safe drinking water is a basic human right of our people.' It may be mentioned here that in calling for the creation of the APWF at the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico in 2006, the water ministers of the Asia-Pacific region sought to establish an effective mechanism to encourage more collaborative efforts on water resource management and to accelerate the process of effective integration of water resources. The Asia-Pacific water ministerial meeting also called upon the APWF to organise Asia-Pacific water summits to be held once every 2-3 years. Bangladesh, obviously, attaches much importance to such event as she herself experiences serious water issues and so far has failed to resolve collectively despite all her sincere efforts even with the help of the United Nations.