Sixth Session of the World Water Forum

The sixth session of the World Water Forum took place in Marseille from 12 to 17 March 2012, where delegations from more than 140 government and international organizations, civil society groups and academics met in some 400 open sessions to discuss the global challenges of water. The participants posed many concrete solutions that will facilitate and accelerate access to water and sanitation as a universal human right and need toward the enjoyment of a full life and all human rights.
The Forum was held under the slogan “Time for Solutions,” with sessions formulated so as to allows participants to move beyond merely diagnosing the issues and discussions, to developing solutions and operational plans. Participants identified 12 cases as major priorities to work on, and three principle conditions for success: (1) contribute to economic development, (2) ensure everyone’s well-being and (3) keep the planet blue. The Forum also proposed a series of objectives for each subject from a list of wide-ranging topics. 

Among the most important outcomes of the Forum activities was the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration on the universal right of everyone to have access to water. Ministers from 130 countries agreed to accelerate implementation of the right to access to drinking water and sanitation. The ministers’ declaration committed also to the promotion of optimal and equitable use of water in internationally shared and cross-border water basins, and emphasized the important role of water in achieving food security and political stability for many countries in the world. That instrument, which is expected to provide an international legal framework, paves the way for the signing of pending agreements on shared groundwater resources in the MENA region in accordance with international law on water by the year 2020. That is expected, in turn, to contribute to a reduction in the theft of groundwater in many hot spots in the world, according to the reports of observers, such as Israel`s theft of groundwater from Egypt and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many human rights organizations have expressed satisfaction that Declaration marked an initial step toward a clear recognition of the right to water as an inalienable right.

Not everyone is satisfied with the outcome of the Forum. For example, the “Food and Water Watch” organization reported from Marseille:

Yesterday’s ministerial statement, while shrouded in happy language about the right to water, was a step backwards for water justice and the UN process that has begun to enforce the human right to water. The forum document, like the forum itself, is illegitimate because it presupposes that corporations have a role in democratic water governance, when nothing could be further from the truth. The entire event itself is a corporate trade show parading as a multilateral forum.[1] 

Altogether, the issue of water in the territory of North Africa and the Middle East in general, and in Palestine in particular, dominated a large part of the activities of the Forum. Sources involved in the meetings of the World Water Forum the importance of the role of water in achieving food security for Spring Arab countries “due to the lack of food insecurity because of the policies of financial corruption.” As regards Palestine, the Israeli Minister of Water was sharply criticized for the way he used the meetings to talk about the Israeli experience in the reprocessing of waste water, agricultural and industrial water, instead of talking about Israel`s role in supporting policies to ensure fair distribution of water resources between and among countries. Experts called for the participants to hold Israel accountable for breaching the international exploitation of Palestinian water resources and depletion of the aquifer near the border with Egypt, pointing out that the latter threatens the development zones in the eastern Sinai. Add In addition, the Palestinian Minister of water accused Israel during the ministerial meetings for an unfair and irrational allocation of water resources in the Palestinian territories, noting that Israel is stealing Palestinian water despite the rains that have been falling on the territory of the West Bank.

On the occasion of three global water events—World Water Day, the World Water Forum and World Water Week, which will be held in Stockholm from 26 to 31 August 2012, a group of nongovernmental organizations issued a statement, committing  to work to include the right to water as a public good in the constitutions of the Arab countries. They especially expressed the deep concern at the lack of policy change from that which the previous regimes followed with respect to the observance of economic and social rights of the peoples that have arisen in order to achieve social justice. They invoked also the 2010 resolution of the UN General Assembly on the right to drinking water and sanitation as a fundamental right and essential to the enjoyment of the right to life and all other human rights.

[1]     Statement by Wenonah Hauter, executive director, Food & Water Watch, 14 March 2012, at:

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/world-water-forum-ministerial-statement-illegitimate/.