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The NGO Workshops (18th and
19th March) aimed to focus the NGO position on the World Water Vision (WWV) and Framework For
Action (FFA) documents. The results were presented as an NGO declaration
to the Ministerial Conference at the Forum and a report to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development 8th session in April.
The workshops followed the central themes of the World Water Council and Global Water
Partnership documents and sought to reflect the key issues addressed by
the Ministerial Conference at the Forum. The workshops included case studies of good
practice, specialist presentations and open discussion. Participants
looked at how NGOs
and other organisations are currently undertaking to realise sustainable
practice in these areas and assessed
opportunities for future collaborations and policy recommendations.
Core theme:
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"the
over-riding goal of the vision to action process is to stimulate and
encourage Integrated Water Resource Management"
Framework for Action
"Preview" document
Taking the central themes of the Framework for Action
and World Water Vision documents this multi-stakeholder panel discussion
examined the concepts and practice of river basin integrated water
resource management and of making water everyone's business.
Panelists included: Turkil Jonch-Clausen (Global Water
Partnership), Austen Davies (Medicins Sans Frontiers), Rocio Cordoba
(IUCN - Central America) and Ranil Senanayake (Neosynthesis Research
Centre Sri Lanka)*Reema Nanvathy (Self Employed Women's Association,
India). It covered issues such as holistic development
and management; regulation; demand orientated approaches; how to balance users and
resources and trans-boundary issues.
Background papers
Workshop Themes
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The World Water Vision promotes the
advantages of full cost recovery for water and sanitation services. This
multi-stakeholder panel discussed public-private partnerships for the
provision of sanitation services and cover issues pertinent for the NGO
community such as: - water monopolies, water privatisation,
transparency, full cost recovery and subsidies. Panellists included Libby Woods
(International Institute for Environment & Development), John Briscoe (World Bank), Jim Lamb (Severn
Trent plc), Steven Bloomfield (UNISON/PSI-UK) and Professor Vijay Paranjype
(Econet, India), Medha Patkar (Narmada Bachao Andolan, India).
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It is vital that 'blue revolution'
technologies aimed at more 'crop per drop' do not over-ride sustainable
agriculture technologies. This workshop examined biotechnology,
irrigation management, technology transfer, watershed depletion,
equitable use of water resources and food security at a local level.
Presented by the NGO 'Kudumbam' from Tamil Nadu, India, and the Catholic
Institute for International Relations (UK).
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With each year the urgent need for
international strategies of hazard avoidance, preparation and mitigation
increases. This session was intended to mirror one
of the themes tabled for debate by the Ministers and covered the
prevention and mitigation of hazards to the environment and human health
that result from groundwater pollution, floods, drought and climate change.
Presented by Medicins Sans Frontier (Aral Sea), Ecote (Ukraine), NGO
Forum for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (Bangladesh)
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This workshop will discuss why access
to water is considered to be a basic right and the responsibilities this
confers on the water users. It will cover the role of customary law and
other administrative methods for protecting access to water. A case
study presentation, it examined the negotiation of access rights between
pastoralists and agriculturists Kenya and the role of customary laws in
Burkina Faso. Presented by Cranfield University (UK), Friends of Nomads
International (Kenya), Green Cross Burkina Faso.
This session addressed practical
issues concerning the decentralisation and local management of water
resources such as: trans-boundary management, stakeholder participation
and effective decision making. Background papers were presented by
WaterAid and World Humanity Action Trust. Case study presentations came from
the Mountain Resources Management Group (Nepal) and Pronet (Ghana).
This extended workshop was facilitated by WaterAid,
intended as a practical skills based
session following on from the policy debate. The objective was to
define actions that NGOs can undertake individually and collectively at
all levels for advocacy the in water and sanitation sector and included
sessions on 'Research for Advocacy' and Capacity Building'.
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