water
water
Secure water for
sustainable growth
Loïc Fauchon, President, World Water Council
Too many children, women and men suffer day after
day from not having access to a sound and abundant
water resource. This is inacceptable. And this is why,
today, each State must actively promote the right to
water as an essential part of human dignity. This right
has its place in each Constitution. But it also needs to
be outlined concretely to ensure minimum allocation
for each family, for farmers, schools, medical clinics
and hospitals.
Water is not only needed for everyday
life. It is essential for the development
of mankind. There cannot be industrial
or agricultural production without water,
no growing economies without the
sustainable availability of abundant and
inexpensive water resources.
Water security is now part of the great
strategic challenges of today’s world
just like nuclear, sanitary, food or
maritime security.
Securing water is first and foremost the
capacity to guaranty everyone with a
decent everyday life, guaranty the water
needed to feed the planet’s population
and also advocate sound water to
radically reduce the death rate due to
waterborne diseases.
Securing water also boils down to
economic and social security to produce
the goods and services needed for
development and the improvement of
living standards. In a world where the
time of easy water is behind us, local and
national governments have no choice
but to immediately rationalise the use of
water, foster reduced consumption and
improve management practices.
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Securing water also means ecological
security to restore to nature the water
that is essential to the preservation
of biodiversity and maintenance of
ecosystems. It is a moral obligation if we
are to guaranty the life and even survival
of future generations. Securing water resources is a
prerequisite for greener growth, the
purpose being to guaranty access to
water and sanitation to the largest
number of people through shared water
security in a fair and sustainable way.
Sharing after looting.
In order to safeguard water for today
and especially for the future, we must
also tie its fate to that of energy. Firstly
because it is the same populations
that are denied access to water and
to electricity. And because energy is a
prerequisite for water and vice versa.
This is why we are asking governments
to rapidly impose a ‘water-energy
package’ within climate negotiations so
as to increase funding of great water
and sanitation infrastructures. The responsibility of the G20 political
leaders is enormous because nothing
will happen if by 2015, water and the
notion of water security are not re-
centred at the heart of the future
Millennium Development Goals allowing
to pursue and amplify i