Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-15-Speech-4-076-000"
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"en.20120315.7.4-076-000"2
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".
Mr President, we, the European Parliament, have drawn up a resolution for the 6th World Water Forum, to be held in Marseille this week. Unfortunately, a large number of colleagues will be unable to attend, as this is a plenary week. Nonetheless, I would remind you that this is the 6th World Water Forum and that we already have a resolution from the United Nations from 2010 drawing attention to water and sanitation as a human right. I believe that we should take this as the starting point for our deliberations in our resolution.
Let me begin, however, by reminding you of a few statistics. The Earth is a blue planet, with the greater part of its water resources made up of saltwater. Our water reserves amount to 1.4 billion cubic kilometres, only 2.5% of which is usable freshwater. Most of this freshwater is in the form of groundwater and only 1% of this is available for actual human use. This represents a figure of 200 000 cubic kilometres. Sixty per cent of this is already used.
If we also consider that water consumption worldwide is increasing at twice the rate of the world’s population, then, I believe, we have food for thought. We need to consider how to secure worldwide consumption in the long term. According to United Nations statistics, the fact is that about 70% of water is used for irrigation in agriculture, with industry accounting for a further approximately 22% and domestic consumption the remaining 8%. At the same time, we find a stark rise in urbanisation, particularly in the developing world. Forecasts indicate that the developing world will witness a 50% increase in water consumption by 2050.
If we consider that the Earth’s population will probably have reached 9.3 billion people by 2050 and that we will need 70% more food to feed this population, then it is possible to imagine how great the strain on water resources will be. Nonetheless, there are also positive signs. We have achieved the first of our Millennium Development Goals, access to clean drinking water. That was evident in the last UN report. We have actually exceeded this target with 89% and may even reach 92% by 2015. Unfortunately we are not quite so far advanced with regard to sanitation. Nonetheless, it is quite clear that if we want to make progress and succeed in solving our water challenges, we must choose a path of economic development, as these successes were only possible by facilitating access to clean drinking water for the Chinese and Indian populations. Unfortunately, there is little positive to report from sub-Saharan Africa.
I believe it is a very positive thing, and I am sure that many of my colleagues will agree with me, that the slogan for this 6th World Water Forum is ‘Time for solutions’. We have already passed numerous resolutions. We now need to put these resolutions into practice. The World Water Forum is working to draw up 12 key priorities with three strategic objectives.
The first is to secure the well-being of people. The second is to keep the planet ‘blue’. The third is to contribute to economic development. What do we need to do to achieve these objectives? We drew up a few ideas in our resolution. Firstly, it is important to improve the situation regarding data. There is still a significant deficit in relation to effective data in the water sector: what are the incoming and outgoing volumes, who are the consumers, what is the level of pollution, and so on. The availability of data must be improved in order to be able to frame and implement policy correctly.
Secondly, planning and action are required in relation to river basins. This is also the central concept behind the Water Framework Directive. However, this concept must be spread throughout the world. A UN resolution also exists. The central point here is that countries need to cooperate across national divides. We are also aware that water leads to conflict in many areas. I also believe, however, that cooperation provides an enormous opportunity to practise policies that will secure and maintain peace.
It is also of central importance that decisions in relation to choosing locations will need to include water-related points in future. This applies in particular to industry. It applies to agriculture and, of course, to industrial production too. We should not forget that water has a very regional character, being extremely scarce in some places and plentiful in others. For this reason, I believe that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ principle is inappropriate, particularly in the water sector."@en1
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