From 2001-12-19 to 2001-10-20

Venue: Cairo, Egypt

Summary:
The countries participating in the Sub-Regional Preparatory Meetings (North Africa, West Asia, ECE) for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, at the Extra-Ordinary MCSD Meeting and the 12th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (Monaco, 12-17 November 2001), as well as, many other fora, have identified Poverty as the main limiting factor in achieving sustainable development. Another limiting factor of our sustainable development is the availability of adequate quantities of good quality and safe Water. Water and Poverty are combined in complex, direct and indirect, ways.

Today, more than one billion poor inhabitants of our planet are not supplied with safe drinking water and more than three billion have no access to sewerage services. Some ten thousand people, and among them many children entrapped in extreme poverty, die every day from water related diseases. People under severe poverty cannot afford to contribute to sustainable management of water.

Frequently, over consumption and mismanagement of water resources by the more privileged parts of the society aggravates the situation of the poor although, according to many international fora, water must be governed as a common good, within a framework of shared responsibility. Access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water should be regarded as a fundamental human right. Deterioration of water resources and poverty could easily be regarded as parts of the same vicious cycle. To break this cycle considerable financial and human resources are needed complemented by institutional reforms. None of these prerequisites could be secured without strong public support, knowledge of traditional and innovative tools and political will. The progress and experiences gained throughout the world on this issue are of utmost importance, though cultural issues frequently differentiate considerably the approaches.

Although poverty and water scarcity or pollution are not rare in the Mediterranean region the issue has not yet received adequate attention in the region. The Workshop on “Water Valuing and Poverty” is organized in the framework of the “Region to Region Dialogues” of the European Rio+10 Coalition.

The Workshop will be virtually the first approach in the region to tackle the very difficult issues of water valuing and poverty, where water “culture”, water rights, water pricing, international cooperation and the needed conditions for improving the situation will be discussed. It is believed that the results will be useful for the formulation of regional and national policies and will contribute to the elaboration of positions to be debated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) and the Third World Water Forum (Kyoto, 2003).

Organizers: MIO-ECSDE
RAED
Contact Name: MIO-ECSDE Secretariat
E-mail: mio-ee-env@ath.forthnet.gr
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