Summit delegates focus on water issues

Delegates at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa today focused on trying to get fresh water and sanitation to the world’s poor.

More than one billion people lack access to clean drinking water and 2.4 billion lack access to sanitation, UN figures show.

More than 2.2 million people die in the developing world each year from problems associated with lack of water and sanitation.

Despite these problems, few governments have focused their attention on the issue, said Margaret Catley-Carlson, chair of the Global Water Partnership.

“Why is water management not more of a priority?” she asked.

Activists need to create the political “ambiance” to push for better water management throughout the world, Catley-Carlson told the delegates in Johannesburg today.

The UN hoped the summit would agree to cut in half by 2015 not only the number of people without access to clean water, but also to sanitation - a new target.

The United States has resisted setting new targets for action.

EU officials, who are backing adding the sanitation target, said they could not understand Washington’s opposition.

“It is important not only that people should be able to get drinking water, but to be able to get rid of waste water,” said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt.

The 10 day summit, billed as the largest UN gathering ever, will also focus on health, energy, agriculture and biodiversity issues.

Negotiations over a plan of action to come out of the gathering have been riven with demands from the developing world for concrete action and resistance, largely from the US, to making new commitments.

Overnight, delegates reached agreement on text to protect the world’s oceans and restore depleted fish stocks, “where possible,” by 2015.

Schmidt, whose country represents the EU, hailed the agreement as “the first major breakthrough” at the summit.