A global meeting on water opened in France on Monday with demands to bring clean water and sanitation to billions in need and to address worsening scarcity and waste. "The challenges are huge and the problems are deep-rooted," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said as he opened the sixth World Water Forum in the southern city of Marseille.
"The number of human beings who have no access to clean water is in the billions. Each year, we mourn millions of dead from the health risks that this causes. This situation is not acceptable - the world community must rise and tackle it." The World Water Forum, held every three years, gathers policymakers, corporations and NGOs.
As many as 20,000 participants from 140 countries are expected for the six-day event, including scores of ministers for the environment and water from developing countries and several heads of state from francophone Africa. Separately, a massive UN report said water problems in many parts of the world were chronic and without a crackdown on waste would worsen as demand for food rises and climate change intensifies. "Pressures on freshwater are rising, from the expanding needs of agriculture, food production and energy consumption to pollution and the weaknesses of water management," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a foreword to the report.
"Climate change is a real and growing threat. Without good planning and adaptation, hundreds of millions of people are at risk of hunger, disease, energy shortages and poverty."= Demand for food will increase by some 70 percent by 2050, which will lead to a nearly 20 percent increase in global agricultural water consumption, the UN's Fourth World Water Development Report said.
Already, more than 2.5 billion people are in need of decent sanitation and nearly one in 10 has yet to gain access to "improved" drinking water, as defined under the UN's 2015 development goals. The opening ceremony included a speech by a young brother and sister from the parched Sahel country of Mali, who begged the June "Rio plus 20" summit to make water a priority. "Promise us that tomorrow will be different," they said. "When the water arrives we can laugh and you can weep tears of joy."