Speech by the Prince of Orange to the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Cape Town
Mr President, Mr Vice President of IPU, Mr Secretary General, Madam Speaker, Mr President of the IUCN, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I consider it a great honour to address the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Ten years ago, during its 100th Assembly, the IPU unanimously adopted a resolution on water and on 'the means required to preserve, manage and make the best use of this resource for sustainable development.'
So as early as 1998 - well before the Millennium Development Goals saw the light of day - the IPU was convinced of the need to take measures in the field of water and sanitation. Or, as your resolution puts it: 'to rapidly initiate international action to ensure access to potable water and to develop sustainable strategies for water use, in view of the fact that more than a fifth of the world's population have no access to safe water and more than half have no proper sanitation facilities.'
You all know what has happened since then. The international community has agreed to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Back in 2004, when it became clear that we were behind schedule on achieving MDG 7, target 10, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided to appoint a special Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, UNSGAB for short, to speed things up.
As Chair of the UNSGAB I am delighted to be here today to inform you about the progress we are making with our work, and to share some ideas with you on the role of the IPU and of national parliaments in addressing global water issues.
Water continues to demand our undivided attention. But it requires bigger effort from everyone to tackle the worldwide crisis on water and sanitation. I am here to share my concern on this topic with you, because I am truly worried, ladies and gentlemen.
Seven and a half thousand people are still dying every day because they lack safe water and decent sanitation. Our rivers are still polluted. Competition looms over the division of water between its various functions, and between users up and downstream. Yet water is one of the cornerstones of sustainable development. Every dollar invested in water and sanitation generates seven dollars' worth of productive activity, and yields dividends for at least five other Millennium Development Goals.
Fortunately much has been achieved in the past few years. Water and sanitation are now well and truly on the agenda of many international forums. Thanks to UNSGAB, thanks to you, thanks to everyone who believes access to a sustainable source for drinkingwater and adequate sanitation is quintessential for human health, dignity and development!
The UN has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, and in several parts of the world, regional sanitation dialogues have now been held at ministerial level. African Ministers have made concrete commitments as expressed in the éThekwini Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene and the AfricaSan Action Plan for 2008 to 2010. From a long list of achievements, I should also like to mention the launch of Global Water Operators Partnership, or WOPs as they are now known, an innovative approach to South-South and North-South partnerships and knowledge exchanges aimed at capacity building in developing countries' public utilities.
I am very happy to show you these results. But yet, ladies and gentlemen, despite all these positive signs, we need to raise awareness even further to keep water and sanitation on the local, national and international agenda. We need to take more action to get good projects implemented on the ground - projects that lead to genuinely sustainable solutions to the problems. The crisis on water and sanitation has not ended yet. There is, unfortunately, still a long way to go. Don't forget that even if we achieve the MDG, we still have more than 1 billion citizens without access to basic sanitation and the low hanging fruits are gone!
UNSGAB will continue to work towards their goals, with activities focusing on the Commission on Sustainable Development, TICAD IV, the G8, the MDG summit in September in New York and the dedicated African Union Water and Sanitation Summit in Egypt this July. We hope that the AU Summit will see the successful éThekwini Commitments and AfricaSan Action Plan endorsed by all AU heads of state and government, so that they can be incorporated into PRSPs and other political processes.
But I also want to appeal to you for your help and support.
In its resolution of 1998, the IPU called on governments and parliaments to take measures that would lead to better water management. I trust that you are all still committed to this resolution. As parliamentarians, you are in the best possible position to put water and sanitation on the agenda, to propose specific measures or aid options.
Let me mention two specific areas in which I think you could play an important and significant role. The first is cooperation in managing international river systems, the second is reducing the administrative burden on countries receiving Official Development Assistance.
To start with the second point.
Partly as a result of pressure from an increasingly vocal public, national parliaments are subjecting expenditure on ODA to closer and closer scrutiny. There is nothing wrong with that. It is, after all, their job to monitor how governments spend taxpayers' money. One side effect, however, is that recipient countries continually have to collect data and meet their donors' reporting requirements, which differ in terms of both frequency and format.
And each of these donors sends out one or two missions every year to see with their own eyes how their money is being spent. Time and resources go into meeting all these requirements - at the expense of the development of the poorest, the very people for whom all these efforts are intended. The result is yet more criticism of ODA, and sometimes even greater parliamentary scrutiny. This I can understand, because, at the end of the day, we all want greater efficiency and effective aid that has direct and tangible results on the ground with as little overhead as possible.
By signing up to the "Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness" during the during the OECD High Level Meeting in March 2005, your governments endorsed this international endeavour to strive for a more effective use of ODA. As Parliamentarians you are in the unique position to inspire your governments, both in receiving and donor countries, to adhere to the "Paris Declaration" and have more attention for concrete results of ODA.
Fortunately, the United Nations has also recognised this problem, and has launched pilots to test a 'One UN' formula: a single presence for all UN agencies. The system has proved to work so well that, after initial scepticism, recipient countries are now standing in line to take part in the programme, even though the pilots have not even been completed, let alone evaluated.
Couldn't the IPU organise a one-stop shop of this kind, allowing national parliaments to perform their essential government oversight duties, while enabling recipient governments to report just once a year, using a uniform format? Everyone concerned could then focus on the core business of actual development.
The other area in which I believe you have a decisive role to play brings me back to the IPU's 1998 resolution, which I referred to a moment ago.
In this resolution, the IPU undertook 'to agree on international principles of equity regarding access to freshwater resources and, in the case of riparian States, to cooperate on matters relating to international watercourses, whether transboundary or boundary.' It was precisely with this aim in mind that the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses in 1997.
But, ladies and gentlemen, 11 years have passed, and this important agreement has still not entered into force. Only 16 countries have ratified the Convention, and that means that we need another 19 before it can be introduced and become effective.
This defies belief. Because it is precisely this UN Convention that offers a framework for interstate cooperation. It offers policy and legal guidance for states that are engaged in transboundary integrated river basin management in support of sustainable development, regional economic integration and improved access to water and sanitation.
Why is ratification of this Convention so important?
Worldwide, there are more than 260 major rivers that are shared by two or more states. These river basins make up some 45 per cent of the earth's surface, and contain around 40 per cent of the world's population. Without good, transboundary management of these basins, it will be impossible to meet the challenges posed by increasing water shortages, equitable distribution, pollution or flooding as a result of changes in precipitation and river outflow rates.
The Rhine, the Danube and the Mekong demonstrate the importance of close transboundary cooperation. The riparian states have succeeded in agreeing on a joint approach to problems, with impressive results. And as well as reducing pollution and the risk of flooding, working together has also improved relations between these states.
But the positive effects of transboundary cooperation can also be demonstrated for smaller watercourses. In 1998, Lesotho and South Africa agreed on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which Nelson Mandela described as 'a scheme, which brings water for South Africa, electricity for Lesotho, and development for both countries.'
Ladies and gentlemen,
This afternoon, UNSGAB is holding a special meeting, together with WWF, GTZ, IUCN and the Italian government, to provide information on Transboundary Water Issues and on the UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigable Uses of International Watercourses. I invite you to attend this meeting, so that we can persuade you of the importance of this convention, why it should be ratified, and should enter into force, as soon as possible. Because you play a vital role in the process since you all have power of decision.
The challenges of water and sanitation will keep their prominent place on our agenda in the years ahead. Good water management forestalls international tensions, and has a direct influence on improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. From the bottom of my heart, I urge you to join forces. We need your autograph, confirmation and active support! Let's work together for the health, dignity and development of those who really need it.
It can be done.
Thank you.
15 April 2008