Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 19
The 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm formally opened on August 17 with a plenary session addressing key facets of the week’s central theme of ‘Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good.’ Most of the more than 2000 participants now gathered in Stockholm were on hand to hear leaders in science, government, and civil society challenge the world to think in new ways about the role of water in peace, economic development, and public health. This was informed in a press note issued from the conference.
“Water and sanitation must be given a higher priority in the governments, in the nations, in the municipalities, in the countries where the problems are,” said Jan Eliasson, Chair of WaterAid Sweden and former President of the United Nations General Assembly. “We need to move from fact finding and early warning to fact facing and early action.”
During the plenary, the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, spoke of his work as founder of the Sulabh Sanitation movement in India. “People started laughing when we suggested making toilets available in all important public places,” he said. “Now we have installed more than 7,500.”
An afternoon high-level panel of experts addressed the complexities of politics and power in Transboundary water basins. Explaining the contentious issues that often underline inefficient or unequal management of water resources at the basin level, the panellists critically evaluated how effective cooperation can be implemented in transboundary river basins, especially in regions where political power is not divided equally.
