Controlling the water supply is now at the forefront of the global political agenda *
France 24
01.06.2011
20 former world leaders discuss looming water crisis
Twenty former heads of state, including former US president Bill Clinton, warned Tuesday of an impending “water crisis” and agreed to establish a panel that will tackle a worldwide leadership gap on the issue.
The retired leaders, among them ex-Mexican president Vicente Fox and former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, said the panel would work to raise the issue’s political prominence in order to avert looming problems with worldwide water supply.
Members of the InterAction Council attending this year’s three-day annual meeting in Quebec City also included former Mexican leader Ernesto Zedillo and and Gro Brundtland of Norway.
The group urged a new international water ethic and offered 21 recommendations for world water management.
At the top of the list: “placing water at the forefront of the global political agenda.”
Others items included linking climate change research and water problems, creating a legal right to water, and raising the price of water to reflect its economic value.
In areas where water is rationed, the priority should be for food crops and not bio-fuels, said the group, whose co-chairs were former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien and one-time Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky.
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Irish Independent
05.06.2011
By Will Hanafin
ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan has been making himself as clear as a Giovanni Trapattoni press conference all week.
Phil spread maximum confusion with his garbled pronouncements about service charges, water meters and gender quotas.
He’s like a one-man nits outbreak, such is the amount of head scratching that he has provoked. But two things are clear, I think! We’re all going to have to install water meters and there’s going to be a 30 per cent gender quota in politics.
The only watertight way to get ahead in politics from now on is to set up a woman-only political party opposed to water meters.
Watch out for the Women against Water Meters Party! Or maybe even Mammies Against Metering? (MAM)
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Chatham House
07.06.2011
The New Politics of Water, Water security and economic growth in emerging economies
Overview
Do major emerging economies have enough water to support their economic growth?
Water is a critical global issue and demand will rapidly outstrip supply, especially in fast-growing emerging economies. Water extraction, storage, and use can cause radical change to ecosystems, with wide-ranging impacts.
Recognition has grown among governments, business, international organizations and civil society of the scale and complexity of the water challenge and the shared risks involved. Focusing on the major emerging economies, this conference will address key issues including:
The complexities of transboundary water agreements: are new foreign policy approaches required?
What national plans are for water management in emerging economies
What policy innovations can tackle water scarcity
What new partnerships and structures can unlock investment in water.
James Leape
Director General,WWF International
Mike Muller
Member, National Planning Commission South Africa
Lars Thunell
Executive Vice President and CEO International Finance Corporation
Speaker Highlights
Giulio Boccaletti
Associate Principal McKinsey & Company
HE Watt Botkosal
Deputy Secretary General Cambodia National Mekong Committee
Margaret Catley-Carlson
Patron Global Water Partnership
Anthony Cox
Head, Environment and Economy Integration Division OECD
Charles Emmerson
Senior Research Fellow Chatham House
Antony Froggatt
Senior Research Fellow Chatham House
Marcelo Salles Holanda de Freitas
Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise and Environment SABESP
David Grey
Visiting Professor Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford
Ania Grobicki
Executive Secretary Global Water Partnership
Bernice Lee OBE
Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resource Governance Programme, Chatham House
José Lopez
Executive Vice President of Operations, Nestlé
Jason Mitchell
Fund Manager, GLG Partners LP
Michael Norton MBE
Global Director, Urban Water, Halcrow Group and Vice Chair, Water Expert Panel, Institution of Civil Engineers
Amir Peleg
Founder and CEO TaKaDu
Usha Rao-Monari
Global Head of Water, Infrastructure and Natural Resources Department, International Finance Corporation
Ambassador Mithat Rende
Director General, Multilateral Economic Affairs, Energy and Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey
Neil Reynolds
Vice President and International Operations Director, Water Business Group CH2M Hill
Mihir Shah
Member,National Planning Commission, India
Dr. Vadim Sokolov
Deputy Director of Scientific-Information Center
Interstate Commission for Water Coordination, Central Asia
Martin Stuchtey
Director, Sustainability and Resource Productivity McKinsey & Company
HE Alemayehu Tegenu
Minister for Water and Energy,Ethiopia
Basem Ali Abdulla Telfah
Director, Performance Management Unit, Al-Meyyah Project, Ministry of Water & Irrigation, Jordan
Marco Antonio Velázquez Holguín
Deputy Director General for Planning, National Water Commission, Mexico
Dominic Waughray
Senior Director, Head of Environmental Initiatives, World Economic Forum
Professor Dr Patricia Wouters
Director - Dundee UNESCO Centre, University of Dundee
Yong Zhong
Deputy Director, Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology Ministry of Water Resources, China
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