The most important international water meeting ever opens in Kyoto, Japan on March 16th to address life and death issues. These range from helping the 2.7 billion people who will face water scarcity by 2025 and preventing the 5 million annual deaths from water-related diseases, to growing dangers of accelerating conflicts over water and saving the world’s lakes, rivers and wetlands.
"The world is in a water crisis that will only grow more acute and devastating in coming years unless governments start giving higher priority to water in their development and investment plans", says William Cosgrove, Vice-President of the World Water Council. "Our discussions will have far more effect on humankind for the 21st century than the current crisis in the Middle East, or any other political problem of the day."
Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water per person is expected to drop by one-third, according to the World Water Assessment Programme, issued by the U.N. earlier this month.
"The dream of pure water for all is within the reach of humanity," says Michel Camdessus, Chairman of the World Panel on Financing Global Water Infrastructure and former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. "Financial flows will need to at least double for us to reach this goal by 2025. They will have to come from financial markets, from water authorities themselves through tariffs, from multilateral financial institutions, from governments, and from public development aid, preferably in the form of grants."
"The world is in a water crisis that will only grow more acute and devastating in coming years unless governments start giving higher priority to water in their development and investment plans", says William Cosgrove, Vice-President of the World Water Council. "Our discussions will have far more effect on humankind for the 21st century than the current crisis in the Middle East, or any other political problem of the day."
Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water per person is expected to drop by one-third, according to the World Water Assessment Programme, issued by the U.N. earlier this month.
"The dream of pure water for all is within the reach of humanity," says Michel Camdessus, Chairman of the World Panel on Financing Global Water Infrastructure and former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. "Financial flows will need to at least double for us to reach this goal by 2025. They will have to come from financial markets, from water authorities themselves through tariffs, from multilateral financial institutions, from governments, and from public development aid, preferably in the form of grants."