Water cooperation is an imperative, not a choice. This is the
message delivered by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova at today’s
official World Water Day celebrations in The Hague (Netherlands).
One month after the launch of the International
Year of Water Cooperation at UNESCO Headquarters (11 February), the
celebrations in The Hague highlight the importance of such cooperation.
The event also seeks to ensure the issue is given priority on the
international community’s post-2015 development agenda.
High level participants at the event
included Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange from the Netherlands, Prince
El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of
Liberia and Michel Jarraud, Chairperson of UN Water. They were joined by
international experts, decision-makers and representatives from
intergovernmental organizations and civil society.
In her opening address, the
Director-General recalled that 90 percent of the world’s population
lives in countries that must share water resources with their
neighbours. Cooperation, she said, “is more than a technical or
scientific issue,” it is also “about fighting poverty and protecting the
environment”.
“Too often,” she added, “people think
water cooperation is only the concern of States. This is not enough.
Water cooperation must happen at all levels – from the local to the
global […] This concerns governments and the private sector, it concerns
all of us.”
2013 was proclaimed International Year
of Water Cooperation, by the United Nations General Assembly.
Cooperation is also the theme of World Water Day, celebrated each 22
March. At the request of UN Water, UNESCO was given responsibility for
preparing celebrations for both the Year and the Day.
Water Cooperation is everyone’s business