Efficiency can help turn tide on water shortages, says UN green

Date: 05/06/03

By Karen Carstens

KLAUS Töpfer is confident that a global water crisis can still be averted.

The ebullient former German environment minister, who has headed up the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 1998, claims that an "efficiency revolution" can turn the tide on the world's dwindling water resources, despite gloomy predictions of grave shortages that some fear could even lead to full-blown 'water wars'.

The most obvious example comes from agriculture - irrigation for fields accounts for more than 70 of global freshwater use. But if more countries would invest in better irrigation systems such as the 'subsoil drip' type used in Israel today, this figure could be dramatically reduced. "It is not that hard to get more crop for your drop," said Töpfer.

The UN environment chief arrived in Brussels on Monday 2 June to help launch the European Commission's third annual Green Week, which comes to a close today with a focus on water - the main theme of this year's UN World Environment Day (also 5 June).

He praised Commission President Romano Prodi for officially launching a €1 billion 'EU Water Fund' at this week's G8 Summit in Evian, where French President Jacques Chirac also put forward a 'Global Water Plan' that was hatched at a World Water Forum held last March in three Japanese cities.

"Now I hope that this €1 billion is used efficiently - soon," said Töpfer, who also lamented that "the poorest of the poor are paying the highest prices for water" (slum-dwellers in Indian and African cities, for instance, often have no choice but to buy water from exploitative vendors).

Several NGOs and grassroots activists, however, have expressed concerns that the Prodi water plan is modelled on a controversial report by former International Monetary Fund director Michel Camdessus, which they claim does little more than call for building more dams and privatizing water services. They say this strategy would hurt rather than help the environment and the poor, as private firms would muscle in and start charging exorbitant fees for access to clean and safe water.

They also claim that the EU will allow the world's water services to be carved up by corporations via a new World Trade Organization agreement.

But Töpfer says that the private sector should not be shut out in the search for solutions to solving the water problems. Otherwise, it will indeed be difficult to meet a UN goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, he added.

"We need knowledge, we need efficiency in handling the question."

"That does not mean I support the privatization of water itself. Instead, public-private partnerships could be the way forward in many cases," he added.

With some 6,000 people dying on a daily basis due to lack of access to safe water, Töpfer also admitted that the 2015 goal is a tough one.

"But if you don't have such a demanding target, then why have one at all?"

Klaus Töpfer, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, has suggested that the decline in the world's water resources can be prevented if more efficient use was introduced.