World Water Vision for the 21th Century

World Water Vision for the 21st Century

The GWP delegates were informed that the World Water Council organisation has
established the “World Commission on Water for the 21st Century” to assess water resources
and devise solutions.

The main task of the commission is to prepare the “Long-term Vision for the 21st
Century” program. The Commission will address questions such as the impact of climate
change on variability of rainfall and desertification; the most likely scenarios for population
growth and spatial deployment; ways of reducing losses in monsoon areas; water harvesting in
semi-arid and arid zones; as well as the possibilities of desalinisation, and new underground
water that could be tapped. The Commission will also address pollution and its treatment
through incentives, and new technologies such as a single cell protein technologies; the re-use
of city waste-water for high value agriculture; and techniques to transform water efficiency in
agriculture to get more crop per drop.
The role of civil society, local communities, women, the private sector and other
institutional actors must figure in this vision of the future. And, all of this must be related to
real action on the ground if the “vision” is to become a reality.

The remarkable scope of experience and positions represented in the Commission
would help raise awareness about the issues and promote action in concert with local
communities and national governments and international bodies around the world”.

The Commission is located in Paris at the UNESCO headquarters and is co-
sponsored by FAO, UNDP, UNEP, WMO.