The remarks made below by the Chairman of the Singapore World Water Week, should shed some light on the ongoing debates of the "international water community".
Access To Safe Drinking Water Should Be Recognised As A Human Right
SINGAPORE, June 26 (Bernama) -- Access to safe drinking water and to sustainable sanitation should be recognised as a human right, according to a statement at the closing of the water leaders' summit here Thursday.
Singapore International Water Week chairman Prof Tommy Koh said the governments of developing countries should stop using their "under-developed" state as an excuse for not fulfilling their responsibility to their people.
Presenting the statement here, Koh said there were over one billion people in the world, 700 million in Asia alone, who did not have access to safe drinking water which was essential for life.
He said the problem was not primarily due to inadequate financial resources, but to the absence of political will, mismanagement, lack of coordination, marginalisation of the poor and lack of a coherent water strategy.
Koh said there were many success stories on water from developing countries such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Fiji.
It was also important to educate the people on the value of water and the need to conserve and not waste water, he said, adding that water should be sold at a price which reflected the real cost of water.
Koh said the summit acknowledged that the people lived in a diverse world and different countries needed different levels of water technology.
The summit concluded that more investment in research and development in water and the environment should be encouraged, and efforts to foster public-private partnership in solving water problems be doubled.
Koh said recent progress in water technology, such as desalination, reverse osmosis, membrane technology and their declining costs had enabled many cities, regions and countries, including Singapore, to solve their water problems.
