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Urban water issues
to dominate 21st century
From Dzifa Azumah, GNA Special Correspondent, Delft, The
Netherlands
Delft (The Netherlands), Oct. 8, GNA - Urban water issues are
going to be the most important subject in the 21st century, says
Andras Szollosi-Nazy, Rector of the UNESCO Institute for Water
Education, on Wednesday.
Addressing about 50 science experts from the globe, at the
opening of the Global Citywater Futures Summit in Delft, The
Netherlands, he said urban water situations were the result of
global water changes.
“If we think there are problems now, it is only the tip of the
iceberg, since there are more water related problems in sight,
with population figures doubling in some countries and pressures
from climate change.
“The water cycle is changing and this is enough indication that
there are more problems ahead if water managers and planners do
not act now, to redesign their tool kits,” he said.
Mr Szollosi-Nazy noted that in the past planners and water
managers used to develop tool kits for 40 years and beyond, but
the situation demands that short term projections and
developments are made to suit the changing trends.
“Long term projections are no longer necessary, because the
trends keep changing within short circles,” he told participants
at the three- day summit.
The summit brought together water managers, urban planners,
regulators, non-governmental organisations and donor agencies.
It also attracted policy makers from the Sustainable Water
Management Improves Tomorrow’s Cities Health (SWITCH) to discuss
and share ideas and experiences with the global network of
scientists.
SWITCH is an action research programme, implemented and
co-funded by the European Union and a cross-disciplinary team of
33 partners from 15 countries around the world.
SWITCH aims at bringing about a paradigm shift in urban water
management away from existing ad hoc solutions towards a more
coherent and integrated approach. The vision of SWITCH is for
sustainable urban water management in the “City of the Future”.
To achieve this goal SWITCH aims to improve the scientific basis
for the development and management of urban water systems, to
ensure that they are robust, flexible and adaptable to a range
of future global change pressures.
Professor Kala Vairavamoorthy, SWITCH Scientific Director said
it was quite unfortunate that most scientific research had
remained on the shelf without implementation.
“We have to shift from this system, by making sure that all
innovations are implemented so that the best can be adopted by
city planners and policy makers,” he said.
Prof. Vairavamoorthy observed that although water is life, it is
also the number one killer with a lot of people dying from water
related diseases each year.
Sanitation seems to be a forgotten part of the Millennium
Development Goal, he said.
GNA
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