The Three W’s of Water
Three international organisations, play a critical and key role in shaping the world’s views, approach to the world’s water problems.
The first, The World Water Forum is a tri-annual gathering of water experts and aimed at solving the world’s water problems. The Forum is the brainchild of the World Water Council the second organisation, a private think tank established in 1996. Among the members who helped in the formation of this Forum are UN Agencies like UNCIF, UNDP, FAO, the World Bank, IUCN and water companies like the Lyonnaise des Eaux.
The first meeting of the Forum took place in Marrakesh (1997) and since then it has met twice, at The Hague (2000) and in Kyoto in 2003. The Forum is not a platform for presenting papers, but a venue for participants to share their experiences on actions and practices that facilitate solutions to water problems.
Third major international player in the water business is the Global Water Partnership, which is a working partnership among all those involved in water management, government agencies, private companies and multilateral development agencies. The Partnership serves as a mechanism for alliance building and information exchange on integrated water resource development.
The Council produced The World Water Vision as a comprehensive document providing a long-term vision of water, life and environment. It established the World Water Commission as a forum to translate this vision into reality. The report of the World Water Commission was presented to the world by the former president of the erstwhile Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev at the World water Forum at The Hague. The report outlines the steps to be taken to solve the world water problems, which include full-cost recovery, wiping out of subsidies and off course privatisation.
The Global Water Partnership was provided the task to develop and guide a `framework of Action’ to achieve these objectives.