21 March | Istanbul
ISTANBUL (AFP) — Ministerial-level talks on the world’s worsening problems of water scarcity, pollution and sanitation began here Friday amid discord over whether water should be considered a fundamental “right” or a “need.”
More than 100 ministers or their stand-ins from around the globe are meeting at the World Water Forum until Sunday, which is World Water Day.
They are due to issue a non-binding statement, acknowledging the target of providing clean water and sewerage for the world’s 6.5 billion people yet also pledging to nurture the precious resources of rivers, lakes and aquifers.
French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said his country hoped to toughen the communique so that it recognised access to safe drinking water and sanitation — referred to in the draft as a “basic human need” — as a “right.”
“France, with Spain, will clearly adopt the most committed position… we want to go as far as we can in this area,” he told a press conference.
“Water is the right to life,” he said. …
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