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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
CUSW learns strategies in world water forum
The Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water Foundation (CUSW) took part in the 4th World Water Forum held in Mexico City recently to learn more from other countries and help promote accessible and clean water in Cebu and the world.
Among the discussion sessions, CUSW president Fr. Mar Alingasa concentrated on learning more on good practices and experiences of other developing countries, cities and communities in Asia, Africa, South America and island countries in the Atlantic and Pacific areas that have concrete relevance to situations in the Philippines, particularly Cebu.
Among the topics of interest were integrated water resources management and associated topics, such as water supply and pricing, water and sanitation, rainwater harvesting, role of women in water management, water education for the youth, river management and flood control, solid waste management and pollution control.
Enrichment
Alingasa brought back not only personal experiences but printed information materials and compact discs—all valuable enrichment materials from actual experiences for CUSW’s capability building program and projects on proper water resources management for sustainable development of Cebu.
The forum, which was held on March 16 to 22, was attended by 11,000 participants, including national ministerial delegates from all over the world.
Alingasa, a board member of the Philippine Water Partnership, was sponsored by the Global Water Partnership-SEA and the Japan Water Forum.
CUSW was organized in 1995 by concerned Cebu-anos as a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder organization concerned with the degraded water resource areas of Cebu and the depleting groundwater supply, which are portending a veritable water crisis in Metro Cebu and elsewhere in the island.
To meet the challenge, CUSW has been advocating the adoption of an integrated water resources management, a holistic approach to achieve sustainable management of water for domestic (health and sanitation), agriculture, environmental and industrial uses.
Obstacles
Resistance to change and lack of political will among political leaders have been the main obstacles to CUSW’s efforts to promote the conservation of water resource areas and proper demand management of depleting water supply.
The 4th World Water Forum was held with the theme “Local Initiatives for a Global Challenge.”
The theme highlighted local initiatives of individual countries, cities and even small communities in various parts of the world to meet the global challenge of water scarcity relevant to the needs of water and sanitation to reduce poverty to 50 percent by 2015 as planned during the 2002 Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In his welcome address, Cristobal Jaime Jaquez, co-chairman of the forum, stressed that the lack of access to safe drinking water and poor water quality are unacceptable, and that the right to water is indispensable to human dignity.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 17, 2006 issue)
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