Conference highlights need to respect and protect water resources

ONE flush of a toilet in the western world uses as much water as a person in the developing world has for all their daily needs, 350 delegates from 45 countries heard in Dublin yesterday.

Key water management issues are being discussed at the week-long conference, organised by the International Water Association (IWA) and officially opened at University College Dublin by junior environment minister Pat the Cope Gallagher.

Citing the disparity in water use between rich and poor countries, Mr Gallagher said the conference provided an opportunity to focus attention on the need to respect, protect and better manage our water resources.

“The world is facing a serious water crisis relating to the quality and quantity of our water resources and the increasing pressures and threats to which they are subject. All the signs are that the problem is getting worse and will continue to do so unless effective action is taken.

“This crisis is largely one of water governance, and the solution lies largely in the development and implementation of strategies to manage water resources better.”

Mr Gallagher said the hope was that progress in relation to water and sanitation would help us to reach goals in other important areas, such as poverty eradication and health in the developing countries.

He said his department had announced funding of 5.4 billion last week under the Irish water services investment programme 2003-2005. There was substantial funding for projects for waste treatment plants, waste water treatment, major river basin management projects and water conservation programmes.

Civil engineer Ray Earl, a member of the IWA’s Irish committee, which organised the conference, said before 1998, “when water pollution was put on the map in this country, people never really did much about it”.

One of the core issues of the conference is to try and see where the compatibility is between water policy and agricultural policy. We don’t like to single out the farmers all the time but reports show two-thirds of diffuse pollution is caused by agricultural pollution of one form or another.”