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Article Millennium Development Goals Assessed at 5th World Water Forum
The fourth day of the 5th World Water Forum Istanbul, a weeklong summit to push the worldwide water crisis onto the international agenda, continued with an emphasis on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), mega-disaster, finance and advancing human development. Experts met on Thursday to promote solutions to the areas of the MDGs that have not yet been met.

 



Millennium Development Goals represent a global partnership that was created during the United Nations Millennium summit in 2000. Formed initially as a response to the UN world summits of the 1990s, the goals, agreed upon by 189 world leaders, promote poverty reduction, education, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality and disease epidemics. The MDGs are intended to be achieved by year 2015. While there has been some progress in certain countries, it has not been standardized across the world. Developing nations continue to experience the slowest improvement and the greatest number of victims.

“The 5th World Water Forum comes at a crucial time period. More than half the time proposed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals has passed, and there is still a great deal to be accomplished,” said Prof. Dr. Oktay Tabasaran, Secretary General of 5th World Water Forum. “The Forum presents a timely venue where experts of the world can convene to determine the actions necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals within the next 6 years.”

Morning sessions also featured a conference between local authority groups and parliamentarians. Mayor of Istanbul and Co-President of United Cities and Local Governments Kadir Topbaþ, opened the meeting by delivering a keynote speech on decentralization in Turkey. Deliberations following focused on the sharing of burdens and competencies between central and local authorities; the role of the private sector; the legal recognition of the human right to water and the right to compensation in cases of deliberate destruction to water sources and infrastructure.

Thursday’s regional sessions focused on the country groups Mediterranean and Arab. During these presentations, the strengths and weaknesses of each region were highlighted. During the Mediterranean session, Ambassador Roza Ieremia of Greece listed political priorities for the region, including: sustainable financing, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and synergies between integrated water resource management and integrated coastal zone management. Following, Michael Scoullos of the Global Water Partnership of the Mediterranean (GWP-Med) summarized the draft Mediterranean message, stating the region approaches the Forum with renewed political commitment. Notable guests in attendance included Jean Claude Vial, Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Territorial Development from France and Elena Espinosa Mangana, Minister of Environment, and Rural and Marine Affairs from Spain.

During the session about the Arab Region, Mahmoud Abu Zied, President of the Arab Water Council (AWC), emphasized that it is a challenge to deliver sufficient quantities of water for agriculture, industry and household use since water is scarce in the Arab region. He said these problems could be solved by drawing upon the region’s human resources, including the Arab Water Academy; collaborating across states and continuing to share information internationally. World Water Council President Loïc Fauchon touched on four main future obligations, namely to implement the right to water; find more funding for water and sanitation, and use it efficiently; ensure that water managers are in place to ensure clean, continual water supply; and provide education about water resources. In further discussions, Al Sadiq Almahdi, Former Prime Minister of Sudan, stressed the importance of dialogue to reach agreement on equitable sharing. He stated that unlike oil, water is a shared resource that can only be managed through good policies and respect of the rights of others.

Source: http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/242369

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