Kyoto 3rd WorldWater Forum 16 - 24 March 2003. A General contribution by yhe OMVS High Commissioner

A PERMANENT QUEST, AN UNPRECEDENTED CRI515 The History of human civilisations is marked by praiseworthy and far-sighted attempts whose main and ultimate objective is a susta ined improvement of the condition of mank ind. ln the framework of this quest , importan t progress has been recorded in various fields . Notwithstanding , important as these achievement may be, their spillover effects have not always been as positive as expected. ln a number of cases , their impacts have been detrimental to the very existence of human kind . . ln this framework and regarding water ressources in particular, insofar as this is the object of our present concern , our planet is experiencing an unprecedented depletion of natural ressources. ln this connection , stat ist ics are rather alarming . The insignificant percentage of freshwater (2,5 %) of world tota l reserves , of which only 0,0007% is easi ly acessible, has turned rather bleak prospects for human kind who , between 2015 and 2020 , will numbe r sorne eight billion living souls. The above-indicated statistics are prone to create structurally important imbalances between nations whose current configuration in the framework of a capitalistic and globalized economy is mechan ically and eminently inequalitarian and. unequitable. Under these conditions, in a context where in uncontrolled growth and rapid diversification of human needs have added to and compounded the predicament of man in our present and modern era, one can easily understand the strategic challenge for a more rational, equitable and democratic management of water ressources considered as eminently economic and social goods . ln my continent, Africa that is, and especially in its tropica l and subtropical arid regions and neighbouring desertic areas , this situation is far more aggravated by the fact that water scarcity is compounded by serious and erratic c1imatic changes that often reach parox ismic thresholds despite the occurrence, now and then , of rainfall optimums. It is our opinion that one of the main goals of the Kyoto 3rd World Water Forum should be to come up with c1ear-cut decisions and guidelines whose implementation should be mandatory on ail stakehblders in order to mitigate , correct , and