3rd World Water Forum, Kyoto 2003

WECF present at the conference of the water and sanitation sector

01.01.2003 | WECF Event

Countries:	International
Donors:	Ministry of Housing Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), The Netherlands
Partners:	NVR, WEDO
Issues:	Water & Sanitation
Duration:	01/2003 - 12/2003

The World Water Forum allows WECF members to present their experiences and policy recommendations to global decision makers from businesses and governments.

Background

At the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, WECF and a small delegation of partners from MAMA-86 Ukraine, M&S Romania, UDASA Uzbekistan and Western European partners took part and co-organized two seminars on Safe Water for All. The Forum itself focused on women, water, privatisation, public participation and poverty.

The World Water Forum, set up by the World Water Council, is organised every three years in close collaboration with the authorities of the hosting country and is the largest international event in the field of water. It primarily serves four main purposes:

To raise the importance of water on the political agenda
To support the deepening of discussions towards the solution of international water issues in the 21st century
To formulate concrete proposals and bring their importance to the world's attention
To generate political commitment

WECF has taken an active part in the events and the resulting processes since 2002.

WECF goals

WECF, through its projects, activities, research and network, supports the goals of the World Water Forum and the World Water Council. WECF uses ecological sanitation (ecosan) as a central part of its work to help rural communities and households to access safe water and healthy sanitation. Much of the work takes place in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

WECF implementation

During the 2003 event, WECF presented three documentaries, produced in collaboration with with NVR and Rapsode, on practical solutions for safe and affordable drinking water in the Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Romania. More about these documentaries with the title “No Drinking Water” can be found here.

Two workshops formed the basis of the WECF contribution. The first workshop covered the issues of gender, water and poverty reduction, and asked the question whether women were just a target group or full partners. An example was a project in irrigation and water management in Sri Lanka and its contribution to poverty reduction. The second workshop discussed Pan-European local water initiatives through the adjustment of policies to local needs and solutions in NIS and Europe.

The group focussed on clean drinking water and ways of successful implementation and monitoring. Examples covered Romania, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Both workshops sent their results to Margot Wallström, Member of the European Commission.

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