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The Muscat Declaration on Water: G-77 calls for enhanced regional push on water
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The three-day G-77 Ministerial
Forum on water concluded last 25th February calling for an enhanced co-operation
in the areas concerned of preservation and judicious consumption of
water. The forum also reached a consensus on a set of joint decisions
called 'The Muscat Declaration on Water'.
Shaikh Abdullah bin
Salim al Rowas, Minister of Regional Municipalities and Water
Resources, officially declared the session closed and adopted the
document of joint decisions and an action plan for the successful
implementation of the resolution. The three-day event, attended by
delegations from 130 member states, addressed the challenges and
strategies for water resources management in the South and agreed on 21
conclusions and recommendations which will be a mandate for the
Istanbul convention to be held next month in Turkey.
Highlighting
the vital importance of water as a source of life, the Muscat
Declaration on Water recognises the human right to clean water and
hygienic sanitation as the key goal. The main challenges namely the
lack of capacity, finance and political will to implement the decisions
and other actions recommended by numerous meetings were stressed.
The
forum highlighted the importance of strengthening the networking of
research and development of institutions on water as well as data
information, equipped by new technology in national and regional
information centres on water resources received unanimous support from
the delegates.
The member states will encourage developing
countries to work together to strengthen strategic partnerships so as
to contribute to the sharing of knowledge, innovation and transfer of
technology for better access to improved water resources and
sanitation. A number of steps will be pursued in terms of exchange of
scientific and technological know-how among developing countries
including:
- Knowledge, mapping and analysis of national capacities in managing shared water resources,
- Enhancing capacities of member states in negotiation skills and in providing technical advisory services,
- Promoting exchange of experiences, best practice and lessons learnt in implementing projects dealing with water resources and environment management,
- Identify new sources of funding with capacities to scale up available resources and exchange of expertise; identify new approaches for additional funding for projects, irrigation and sanitation
- Promote innovative technologies to address the negative impacts of water-related disasters such as floods, droughts, cyclones, desertification, deterioration of river watersheds and the intrusion of sea water in to the non-saline ground water in coastal areas resulting from the rise of the sea surface caused by climate change and global warming.
Besides these, enhancement of dialogue on water and
sanitation under the UN framework, promotion of sub-regional, regional
and international South-South partnerships, joint undertaking for
development of irrigation and transfer of low-cost technologies,
exchange of experience on the application of good governance between
the member states and establishment of a G-77 Achievement Award in the
field of water were stipulated in the declaration.
Globally,
almost 1 billion people have no access to clean water and 80 per cent
diseases are due to polluted water and shockingly, an average of 1.5
billion children die yearly due to diarrohea and other diseases caused
by contaminated water and inappropriate waste water systems. It is
quite obvious that increasing consumption of water, insufficient water
resources, lack of balance between supply and demand, depletion of
water resources and absence of prompt, integrated water policies have
all led to this critical situation. The Form realised that despite the
great number of institutions addressing the issues of water management
and projects for access to water, progress in reaching the goals to
halve the number of people without access to safe water and adequate
sanitation is slow and uneven.
--
Further information:
FANA News
Aljazeera.net (in Arabic)
KUNA
AMEINFO
| Contact information |
By Kabeer Yousuf, © Oman Daily Observer 2009
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| News type | Inbrief |
| File link |
http://www.g77.org/water/Muscat_Declaration_on_Water.pdf |
| File link local |
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| Source of information | © Oman Daily Observer 2009 |
| Subject(s) | DRINKING WATER , DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION : COMMON PROCESSES OF PURIFICATION AND TREATMENT , METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT |
| Relation | http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0258BB49-991E-4D11-ACF6-928B3DD90112.htm |
| Geographical coverage | Oman |
| News date | 26/02/2009 |
| Working language(s) | ARABIC , ENGLISH |
