Your Excellencies, Ministers, Executive Directors, My Lord- both Spiritual and Temporal, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I consider it a privilege to make these submissions gathered from the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden which l attended courtesy of the benevolence of the Stockholm International Water Institute organizers of the World Water Week. Particularly interesting was the Young Water Professionals Seminar which drew over 40 young water professionals the world over.
The world’s population is expected to increase by 50% come 2050 bringing the total number of people on mother earth to some 9 billion. Nearly all of this growth is projected for the developing world. Normally, this stupendous increase will impact heavily on our natural resources not the least water, biodiversity and the ecological balance of the world. There is therefore the urgent need to change the way we view our resources and more importantly, how we use them. Half the world’s population is projected to be less than 20 years and about 90% of all young people live in developing countries. Consequently, youths are a factor in the global economy and processes and will remain potential stakeholders and engines for change in the near future. Therefore, the energy, motivation and creativity of youths are essential assets to bringing about this change.
Water remains one of the key factors that will drive development in humanity. Why? Its simply because we drink it, wash and bath with it. Without it what will become of our dishes, clothes, homes, cars and industries. Food crops won’t even grow without it nor can we as humans survive a mere 6 days without it, when without food we could go on for 1 month.
As shocking as they may sound it is indeed true that the economically exploitable water should run out in some critical areas come 2005 and by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population could be facing severe water shortages based on the simple fact that as yet, 2 billion people have no access to safe drinking water while another 4 billion people worldwide have no running water at home. This problem is the more compounded by the amount of waste that is being dumped into our streams, rivers and lakes. For instance half of the people in Africa suffer from water related illnesses as a result of water pollution.
What we as youths see as the set backs are:
• Lack of mainstream support - youth-led water programs are rarely afforded the funding or recognition required to implement or replicate in a substantial or sustained manner.
• Lack of participation in decision-making – youth are rarely involved in national, regional and international water policy development, meaning youth lack the framework, support and legitimacy required for sustained action, and policy implementation lacks buy-in from this key grassroots constituency.
• Lack of communication – youth effort on water resources management is fragmented, often uninformed by others practice, unconnected to a bigger picture, unable to leverage resources, and find moral and inspirational support.
• Lack of continuity – youth, by definition, is a transitory demographic. As young people gain experience and move into adulthood, they often take their valuable experiences with them, leaving others to relearn the lessons of the past.
Our challenge to you is to address these deficiencies, recognizing and capitalizing upon young people - a vital stakeholder in creating a more inclusive sustainable Society. We must find a way to make existing youth leaders in water and environmental activism for development more effective and to rapidly involve more youth in such activities.
The pool of potential talent and energy is vast. According to the UN Secretary General’s report on the Implementation of the World Program of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, young people aged 15-24 equal more than 18% of the world population. At least 85% of these young people live in developing nations where they are up to 40% of the population within their countries.
For young people to have a say on these decisions, we need to make sure that we have clear viewpoint, and that we tell it to the right people at the right time hence the need to address this distinguished audience with our blue print for tomorrow which considers but is not limited to the fact that the tools and other elements needed to achieve a balance between development and sustainability include:
a. Political feasibility
b. Incentives
c. Stakeholder identification and participation
d. Innovative and creative financing techniques
e. Consensus building including a dialogue process
f. Integrated water resources management
g. Institutions and adaptive capacity
h. Community participation
From the foregone, we demand time-bound actions to acknowledge the reality that government and NGOs are donor dependent to varying degrees and therefore call for the promotion of dialogues amongst stakeholders to incorporate the implementation of the recommended elements and tools towards securing a balance among competing water users.
We also emphasize the need for political will in order to ensure innovative, technical, economic and social solutions that will provide a balance between water use and sustainable development.
We call for strategies for finding a balance in policies between the developed and developing countries since instruments that are applicable in the North may not be appropriate in the South due to social, political, economic, cultural and environmental differences given that a country’s development objectives will influence their definition of sustainability and the path they advance to attain these objectives.
Finally, we recognize that poverty alleviation and livelihood security are necessary prerequisites to develop adaptive capacities that will assist sustainable development in the future and demand such policies and strategies that will not jeopardize environmental sustainability but rather be implemented in conjunction with development activities.
Thank you.
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