Major Group: NGOs
DRAFT
CSD-13: OPENING STATEMENT BY THE NGOs? MAJOR GROUP ON WATER AND IWRM
ON APRIL 11TH 2005
Chair,
Water is a human right.
That is the starting point for our work as NGOs. It should have been the starting point of your
Summary from the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM). It wasn?t. It was in
paragraph 29, page 7. The CSD-13 text must put that right.
Starting with the right to water is not rhetoric. It has immediate practical implications. A right to
water means:
· A right for women to participate in decision making
· A right to choose appropriate indigenous technologies
· A right to information about the performance of the water sector
And critically a right to water means protecting and managing the natural resource base for
present and for future generations. All of our efforts are meaningless when there is no more
water.
Chair, you have asked for priority actions at international, regional and national levels. NGOs
propose:
At international level CSD-13 must:
· Input to the UN Millennium Review and ensure that water priorities, including IWRM, are
integrated into each one of the MDGs
· Create transparent inter-governmental monitoring arrangements and a UN-coordination
mechanism for follow -up, including for IWRM and regional initiatives ;
· Increasing ODA to the sector is a priority, but will not help and the poorest countries will
not be able to commit their own resources ?until unpayable debts are cancelled and
trade is made fair. C SD 13 must make this crystal clear to the Fnancing for
Development meeting in June.
· Define IWRM to include water quality and ecosystem management. These issues are
decoupled in the IPM summary. In contrast, the recently published Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment stresses that ?any progress achieved in addressing the goals
of poverty and hunger eradication improved health and environmental protection is
unlikely to be sustained if most ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to
be degraded.?
At regional level CSD-13 must:
· call for strengthened transboundary water and river basin catchment cooperation
· follow up the outcomes of this meeting, by using and strengthening regional bodies for
monitoring and decision making, such as AMCOW or the UN regional economic
commissions.
At national level cSD13 outcomes must recommend :
· Public financing to become more efficient by the effective coordination of donor
assistance and the removal of the burden of multiple reporting requirements.
DRAFT
· Decentralisation of responsibilities must be accompanied by the decentralis ation of
financial power, and accountability to local people
· Promotion of full cost accounting so that the real value of ecosystem services is used
while planning any development
· Mobilis ation and scaling up of initiatives which build on communities? own resources and
knowledge of their own environment As NGOs we commit to continuing our work with
communities that already do much to manage their own water resources. We seek the
support of governments through recognition of the right to water and water as a public
good in national legislation to this end.
· Promotion of microfinance for appropriate local solutions
· Elimination of corruption through improving access to information and downward
reporting systems, which will enable NGO s and citizens to help e ffective
implementation
Chair, we are disappointed that your recommendations now include the promotion of largescale
private sector provision of water services when there are many failed examples, such as
in Manila and El Alto (Bolivia). Rather, there is much more potential in building local
entrepreneurship and strengthening public water utilities.
In our closing statement at the IPM we identified three things which must happen:
Firstly the sense of urgency; secondly the central importance of part icipation, accountability and
transparency and thirdly that the actions to which states commit must add up to coherent
packages in the context of each country. Spectacular results can be achieved when we pull
together. An international declaration of ?lo west common denominators? will not make the dayto
day life and work of people living without clean water any easier.
We call therefore on CSD-13 to result in coherent international policy environment and
country-specific tables of commitments with each player active in the country concerned
making their contribution in line with country-led sector plans.
Chair, we thank you.
CSD-13: OPENING STATEMENT BY THE NGOs? MAJOR GROUP ON WATER AND IWRM
ON APRIL 11TH 2005
Chair,
Water is a human right.
That is the starting point for our work as NGOs. It should have been the starting point of your
Summary from the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM). It wasn?t. It was in
paragraph 29, page 7. The CSD-13 text must put that right.
Starting with the right to water is not rhetoric. It has immediate practical implications. A right to
water means:
· A right for women to participate in decision making
· A right to choose appropriate indigenous technologies
· A right to information about the performance of the water sector
And critically a right to water means protecting and managing the natural resource base for
present and for future generations. All of our efforts are meaningless when there is no more
water.
Chair, you have asked for priority actions at international, regional and national levels. NGOs
propose:
At international level CSD-13 must:
· Input to the UN Millennium Review and ensure that water priorities, including IWRM, are
integrated into each one of the MDGs
· Create transparent inter-governmental monitoring arrangements and a UN-coordination
mechanism for follow -up, including for IWRM and regional initiatives ;
· Increasing ODA to the sector is a priority, but will not help and the poorest countries will
not be able to commit their own resources ?until unpayable debts are cancelled and
trade is made fair. C SD 13 must make this crystal clear to the Fnancing for
Development meeting in June.
· Define IWRM to include water quality and ecosystem management. These issues are
decoupled in the IPM summary. In contrast, the recently published Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment stresses that ?any progress achieved in addressing the goals
of poverty and hunger eradication improved health and environmental protection is
unlikely to be sustained if most ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to
be degraded.?
At regional level CSD-13 must:
· call for strengthened transboundary water and river basin catchment cooperation
· follow up the outcomes of this meeting, by using and strengthening regional bodies for
monitoring and decision making, such as AMCOW or the UN regional economic
commissions.
At national level cSD13 outcomes must recommend :
· Public financing to become more efficient by the effective coordination of donor
assistance and the removal of the burden of multiple reporting requirements.
DRAFT
· Decentralisation of responsibilities must be accompanied by the decentralis ation of
financial power, and accountability to local people
· Promotion of full cost accounting so that the real value of ecosystem services is used
while planning any development
· Mobilis ation and scaling up of initiatives which build on communities? own resources and
knowledge of their own environment As NGOs we commit to continuing our work with
communities that already do much to manage their own water resources. We seek the
support of governments through recognition of the right to water and water as a public
good in national legislation to this end.
· Promotion of microfinance for appropriate local solutions
· Elimination of corruption through improving access to information and downward
reporting systems, which will enable NGO s and citizens to help e ffective
implementation
Chair, we are disappointed that your recommendations now include the promotion of largescale
private sector provision of water services when there are many failed examples, such as
in Manila and El Alto (Bolivia). Rather, there is much more potential in building local
entrepreneurship and strengthening public water utilities.
In our closing statement at the IPM we identified three things which must happen:
Firstly the sense of urgency; secondly the central importance of part icipation, accountability and
transparency and thirdly that the actions to which states commit must add up to coherent
packages in the context of each country. Spectacular results can be achieved when we pull
together. An international declaration of ?lo west common denominators? will not make the dayto
day life and work of people living without clean water any easier.
We call therefore on CSD-13 to result in coherent international policy environment and
country-specific tables of commitments with each player active in the country concerned
making their contribution in line with country-led sector plans.
Chair, we thank you.