DUSHANBE FRESH WATER
INTERNATIONAL FORUM
As it is known, UN General Assembly at its 55 session by initiative of the
President
of Tajikistan E. Pahmonov proclaimed 2003 as International Year of Fresh
Water. To underline this initiative importance, Dushanbe International Fresh
Water Forum has been held in Tajikistan since 29 August till September 1, 2003
under support of leading international organizations and specialized agencies.
General theme of Dushanbe International Fresh Water Forum was “Water, environment
and security”. Three days Forum consisted of plenary sessions with presentations
from well known specialists, special events and international and national NGO
presentations, exhibition “Water World”.
Day before the Forum several technical tours were organized that permitted
to participants to acquaint more closely with Nurek water work and Tajikistan
picturesque
environment.
Following thematic areas were defined for discussion during the Forum:
- Water and interstate collaboration
- Water and health
- Water conservation technology and water productivity in agriculture
- Information exchange for water partnership strengthening.
Forum was attended by whole series of politicians from different continents,
known professionals and experts, representatives of international
and non-governmental organizations.
Organizing Committee and Working Group on Forum preparation and conducting
have developed detail information about Forum and placed it in
special site in internet: www.freshwaterforum.org
Dushanbe Water Appeal became final document of the Forum, which is presented
below.
DUSHANBE WATER APPEAL
Freshwater is essential for our daily survival, is an integral part to ecosystems
as well as a key to sustainable development. At the Millennium Summit in 2000,
and again at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in
2002, world leaders recognized the centrality of freshwater to life and sustainable
development, and committed themselves to a clear and time-bound agenda for
addressing the world's current and future water resources, sanitation and environment
problems.
The paramount role belongs to the creation of the adequate public opinion on
carrying out the solutions adopted in the final documents of these meetings.
The International Year of Freshwater 2003, declared by UN General Assembly
at the initiative of the Government of Tajikistan, has raised the world awareness
about freshwater problems and an aspiration of the major countries towards
their resolving. This momentum should gather strength to fully address the
water and sanitation issues. This year should become a transition from discussions,
intentions and commitments to the implementation of concrete projects and programmes.
The history shows that the water crisis may lead to conflicts at a certain
stage. However, the water resources, besides their potential capacity to cause
conflicts can and should promote the cooperation between nations and countries
considering the rights of not only present but also future generations for
the access to water resources.
Water management should be used to create conditions conducive for peace and
ensuring the growth of prosperity. Countries should share knowledge, experience
and advanced technologies in the field of rational and effective use of water
resources. Water, that sometimes divides people, living upstream or downstream,
in urban or rural areas, and arising herewith water issues, and even the water
cycle itself, should link us in our common efforts to protect and share it
equitably, sustainable and peacefully, with a constant effort to protect the
poor and the vulnerable.
We, the participants of Dushanbe International Fresh Water Forum, representing
the governments, scientific and educational institutions, local authorities,
non-governmental and international organizations, private businesses,
Call upon:
all politicians, government and public leaders to put the issue of water high
of the agenda and to support the proposal of the President of Republic of Tajikistan
E. Rakhmonov on International decade "Water for Life", made during
the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto (Japan);
all those countries, which have not yet joined the Johannesburg Declaration
on Perspectives of renewable energy sources development, to consider the
question of such possibility.
Reaffirm the pledges to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals and to the enforcement of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
Plan of Implementation in the water sector:
to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people unable to reach safe
drinking water and having no access to basic sanitation;
to develop in our countries, by the year 2005, integrated water resources
management and water efficiency plans;
Suggest all countries reaching
these goals by means of:
- implementation of the integrated water resources management considering
the interests of all sectors benefiting from the water resources (energy,
agriculture, industry, water supply and sanitation, etc.) as well as
all inhabitants of water basins residing upstream or downstream, in urban
or
rural areas;
- transition to mainly river basin management, including transboundary
water courses, establishment of new and extending of mandates of existing
river
basin organizations, elaboration of the regional legal base for their
functioning, involving different sectors of the society and economy;
- raising the public awareness to provide the future generations with
the information on the effective response to the challenges of the new
millennium, ensuring the necessary conditions for the exchange of the information
related to equitable and. efficient use of water resources and promoting
their
allocation among the competitive water users;
- developing innovative financing mechanisms, sensitive to the needs
of poor, financially sustainable strategies, including the implementation
of the new
water pricing policy and considering the costs for the ecosystem
services to maximize public funds, minimize risk and intensively attract
private
sector involvement and investments;
- facilitating the establishment of public-private partnerships and
other forms of partnerships, that give priority to the needs
of the poor, within
stable and transparent base by means of establishment of the
international network of countries committed to integrated water resources
management;
- further development of not yet used hydroelectric resources for
the considerable increase of the renewable energy sources portion;
- achieving the established goals of the water sector considering
the need for reversing the tendency of natural resources
degradation and
promoting
an essential loss reduction of the biological diversity by 2010.
Welcome:
- the initiative of Tajikistan on announcing 2003 - the International Year
of Freshwater and calling up the Dushanbe International Fresh Water Forum,
declared by the UN General Assembly;
- the decision of the Heads of State of the "Central Asian Cooperation" Organization
on establishment of international Water-Energy consortium as a step to the
integrated water resources management of the river basins;
- the appeal of the Central Asian Heads of State on giving the International
Fund for Saving the Aral Sea a status of the UN Organization and on establishment
of the UN Commission on coordination of external aid to the countries
of the Aral Sea basin;
- the initiative of the Asian-Pacific region on priority protection of
the freshwater quality and its supply to the population, which became the
most
important one to implement the decisions of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development.
We suggest declaring the decade 2005-2015 an International decade of "Water
for Life" as well as to conduct daily monitoring of activities on accomplishing
the decisions of the International Forums on water problems, (for this purpose,
it is expedient to establish an International Center on Freshwater in Dushanbe).
Adopted by the participants of the Dushanbe International Freshwater Forum
on September 1, 2003.
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