Water Challenge - a blog by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe
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The Water Challenge blog by our Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe aims to create discussion about the important issue of water availability around the world.Your comments and views are important and we encourage you to help us build and develop the conversation.
Water in Singapore: the city-state that looks ahead
Cecilia
Tortajada, President, Third World Centre for Water Management, Mexico,
with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore
Discussions on whether public water supplies should be privatised
or not have reached epic proportions. Yet it is important to see this in
context: less than 3% of the water supply to people in developing
economies runs through “privatised” pipes (actually schemes run in
highly regulated public-private partnerships); 97% of supply still runs
through pipes fully owned by municipalities and other public structures.For me, however, the real issue is not who owns the pipes; it is whether the schemes providing water to urban and rural populations do it efficiently and sustainably, i.e., the quality of the management of these schemes. Singapore provides an excellent example of such efficiency and sustainability in one of the best managed public, i.e, state-owned supply schemes worldwide. Dr Cecilia Tortajada, President of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico just published a book on the Singapore water supply story – a book I can strongly recommend. For those who prefer a shorter version of the main points, Cecilia kindly agreed to write for my blog the guest post below.
As usual, I invite my readers to share their own insights and comments in response to Cecila’s excellent piece.
Development goals, water resources management and the role of the private sector
Together
with Jin-Yong Cai of IFC listening to M. Mohieldin, Special Envoy of
Worldbank President, T. Stelzer, UN Assistant Secretary-General and M.
Anderson, Director DFID and Special Envoy to PM Cameron
Many of you have asked me questions in recent days about my views on
the human right to water. I want to thank you for taking part in this
discussion and encourage you to keep engaging on the important issue of
water scarcity.In my role as Chairman of the Water Resources Group, I have just visited the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC in the United States for 2030 Water Resources Group meetings and a high-level discussion on a water goal within the post-2015 UN Development Strategy, combining the Millennium Development Goals with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Water is one of the biggest challenges for sustainable development over the coming decades. Its effects can be felt right across all three pillars of sustainability – environmental, social and economic. There is one important dimension of the social pillar of sustainability that must be kept in mind: water for survival is a human right.
Water you need for survival is a human right – some clarity
From time to time on the internet a video clip from a TV
programme made in 2005 about food is posted in which I am talking about
whether water is a human right. It seems it has surfaced again, and
people are using it to misrepresent my views on this important issue.
Let me be very clear about this again here on the blog, because I think the video clip, which took my views out of context, isn’t clear about the point I was trying to make. The water you need for survival is a human right, and must be made available to everyone, wherever they are, even if they cannot afford to pay for it.
Let me be very clear about this again here on the blog, because I think the video clip, which took my views out of context, isn’t clear about the point I was trying to make. The water you need for survival is a human right, and must be made available to everyone, wherever they are, even if they cannot afford to pay for it.
The 2030 Water Resources Group – some clarity
Over the past few months, the 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG)
has been frequently mentioned in the media, usually by third parties
with little knowledge of its goals and activities. In Switzerland, some
journalists have picked up on some critics’ interpretation that the WRG
is essentially a way for private companies to gain a foothold in the
area of municipal water distribution. On German TV, a journalist
developed, at great length, a complaint lodged by a wealthy South
African that the WRG is not getting involved in improving municipal
water supply.
I believe that we need to sharpen the profile of the 2030 Water Resources Group, better communicate its great potential and correct some of the misperceptions and politically biased conclusions reached by some media personalities.
I believe that we need to sharpen the profile of the 2030 Water Resources Group, better communicate its great potential and correct some of the misperceptions and politically biased conclusions reached by some media personalities.
The importance of partnerships on World Water Day
Water Resources Group at WEF Davos: Mr Brabeck-Letmathe with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon The global water challenge has moved up the priority list of international leaders and government bodies over the past few years, as I have highlighted elsewhere. World Water Day is a reminder that water cooperation, particularly addressing the rapidly increasing water shortage as a challenge to societies, is more important than ever.
Many of you may know that in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared that 2013 was to become the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. The UN’s aim was to raise awareness of the importance of partnerships and of water management challenges, considering the increasing demand for water access, allocation and services.
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