Paris, March 16 {No.2000-23} - On the occasion of Word Water Day, celebrated on March 22, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has issued the following message:

"The challenge we face, as we mark World Water Day 2000, is to set in motion a dynamic that will make this the century of world water security. Water has long been too low on the public policy agenda or presented only in terms of disasters, scarcity, pollution or as a potential source of conflict. We need to take a constructive approach to water: it is an essential, shared resource; it should be treated as a foremost priority in every community from the local to the global. There is a fundamental truth which I would like to emphasise on this occasion: the water supply does not run dry when it is drawn from the well of human wisdom.

"UNESCO gives priority to water as part of its science programme, but it also promotes reflection on traditional knowledge and water management. Our Organization hosted the world-wide consultative process that led to the drawing up of a World Water Vision, yet it also fosters small-scale, local solutions to water problems. All decision-makers and officials with responsibilities for water need to pay attention to the role of women as the primary managers of water policy at family-level, to the role of education and culture in attitudes to water. Above all, we need to see water issues as a powerful catalyst for collaborative projects involving national research establishments, regional and international research networks, community leaders, educators, young people, intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and many other partners.

"Water stress creates such vulnerability in communities that the crisis reference will always be there. But let us not lose sight of the fact that water is the source of life: the real problems are usually those of inadequate political, technical and social responses, those of unequal distribution of wealth and knowledge. We do not need to wait for a water crisis to remedy these problems. We can tackle them today."