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Fresh Water

Insight into Fresh Water

 

Loïc Fauchon - President, World Water Council

“There is no development without water but not all water should be dedicated to development. It is in these terms that the future of water in Africa, as well as on other continents, should be understood. Because water, has become a scarce resource in many places, Africans can no longer think in the short-term. Water resources and its security should be considered over time, as well as geographically.

Giving back to nature the water needed for the prosperity of future generations, both in terms of quality and quantity, is a duty, one that corresponds to the expression of the right to water and sanitation for each African man and woman. Guarantying access to water depends on the existence of three complementary pillars, which form the basis for a priority to water: finance, governance and knowledge.”

 

Trends in water and agricultural development - Chapter 2, Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture

“While it is possible with good management to treat the symptoms of water scarcity, it is also possible with bad management to create water problems in areas of no water scarcity.”

"For much of the world there is a pending crisis not because of a shortage of water but because of mismanagement of water resources."

 

UNU-INWEH - Deep Words, Shallow Words: An Initial Analysis of Water Discourse in Four Decades of UN Declarations

“Discourse about the provisioning of safe water for healthy communities has been replaced by the question of our own role in the misuse of water."

 

Hachmi Kennou, Executive Director, Mediterranean Water Institute and World Water Council Governor

“Management of transboundary water, based on one energic regional cooperation, will be the best way to avoid conflict and promote peace in the world."



 

UNESCO-WWAP - Climate Change and Water: An overview from the World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World

"Water availability and poor water management are at the root of vulnerability for many countries already and this is likely to increase with future climate changes, having an undeniable effect on development progress and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; adaptation strategies are needed urgently.”

“There exist a variety of no-regrets solutions that will help address current and possible future water-related vulnerability and generate multiplied development benefits, regardless of climate scenarios”

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, Nov 27, 2002

"Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.”

 

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

"Everyone understands that water is essential to life. But many are only just now beginning to grasp how essential it is to everything in life – food, energy, transportation, nature, leisure, identity, culture, social norms, and virtually all the products used on a daily basis.”

 

National Geographic, October 1993

“It is water, in every form and at every scale, that saturates the mind. All the water that will ever be is, right now.”

 

Marvin Cetron - President, Forecasting International

“the future will be all about the fight for resources, particularly the most precious one of all — water”

"We’re losing water at such a large rate, there will be water wars, the aquifers are dropping, and that’s a problem.”

 

 

Mostafa Kamal Tolba, an Egyptian scientist most famous for his 17-year tenure as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“We used to think that energy and water would be the critical issues for the next century. Now we think water will be the critical issue."

 

 

Marq de Villiers, author of Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource

"The trouble with water—and there is trouble with water—is that they're not making any more of it. They're not making any less, mind, but no more either. There is the same amount of water in the planet now as there was in prehistoric times. People, however, they're making more of—many more, far more than is ecologically sensible—and all those people are utterly dependent on water for their lives (humans consist mostly of water), for their livelihoods, their food, and increasingly, their industry. Humans can live for a month without food but will die in less than a week without water. Humans consume water, discard it, poison it, waste it, and restlessly change the hydrological cycles, indifferent to the consequences: too many people, too little water, water in the wrong places and in the wrong amounts.”

 

John F. Kennedy

"Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science.”

 

 

 

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