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Developing Countries Find Little Consideration
Participants Polarized on Assessment of Global Event
By Dana Charkasi
Amman Jordan Times
March 23, 2000
The Hague - The Second World Water Forum ended on Wednesday with caustic criticism from some participants, who alleged that international institutions and corporations deliberately sidelined underdeveloped and developing countries. During the six-day event at The Hague, 4,000 country leaders, water experts, representatives of private companies and NGOs exchanged views on water problems and finalised the meeting with a ministerial declaration containing recommendations on a framework of action to solve global water problems. Every human being, now and in the future should have access to safe water for drinking, appropriate sanitation, and enough food and energy at reasonable cost, the declaration stressed.
While some participants praised the conference as a unique opportunity to bring together the various stakeholders involved in the field of water issues, many others criticized that the event was sponsored by multinational water management companies, such as Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux, irrigation lobbies and corporations and multinational agencies trying to promote business.
"We were exceptionally unhappy with the control of the forum by water multinationals and the World Bank, and we believe that the intention was to attain governments' and NGOs' acceptance of water privatization," said Maude Barlow, volunteer national chairperson for The Council of Canadians. "It was contrived from the beginning by the World Bank and the corporations that the view of anyone who does not believe in privatization should not be heard. The outcome of the panels were controlled and the statements were prepared ahead of time."
One group of participants was disappointed that not all regions of the world were equally represented and that developing countries were marginalized by an under- representation of speakers to the forum. "I feel that Latin Americans as well as people from the former Eastern European block countries were not sufficiently represented," said Emilia Bocanegra, Argentine advisor to the International Association of hydrologists, from the National University of Mar Del Plata. "Also, the conference was in English, so it was difficult for us to participate. Most of the speakers were from Europe, the U.S. and former colonial countries, such as India and Africa." "Voices of the Third World were not welcome, when someone from the developing world spoke, they were marginalized, spoken down and treated badly," agreed Barlow. "Corporation and World Bank officials behaved as if they had all the answers to all the problems and they dealt with others as if they were stupid people who had no idea. They had an air of `We have to teach them.' It was disgusting."
Representatives of developing countries said they felt targeted by large corporations at the international conference, where debate raged on the utility and morality of water pricing. "It is evident that the large corporations of the world are looking to [Latin American countries] as a rich source that yet needs to be exploited," said Elba Stancich of the Coalition of Living Rivers from Argentina. Latin America holds 25 per cent of the universal freshwater resources and 85 per cent of the world's biodiversity, Stancich said, yet it is "very astonishing that all the Latin American problems were invisible during this forum." "Civil societies of Latin America were not invited to participate in this conference," Stancich complained. "The sole representatives of these countries were from the respective governments."
Others said the recommendations of the Ministerial Declaration were too general to take into account the specific water problems of each region of the world. "The declaration is a little bit too general, but it is a beginning. This is really a declaration of goodwill and a letter of intent to the world," former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Perez told the Jordan Times on Wednesday. Perez said it is more important to find the means to finance water projects planned in the Middle Eastern region to solve the soaring water scarcity and suggested a donors' conference. "I think we have to think about how to finance [water projects in the Middle East]. We have great projects, but we don't have the finances for them," Perez said.
But there were also other positive remarks. "I am satisfied. The ministers are very serious about water problems and I hope that the declaration will be implemented," said Silva Celebrin-Tevsic, from the Croatian Radio and Television. "The biggest advantage of this conference is that it brought together all the stakeholders involved in water issues," said Sian Rahima Abdullah from a humanitarian organization in Malaysia. "The conference was very positive. It showed that people are concerned with water problems. I think that the African continent was well represented," said Seydan Zone of Green Cross, Burkina Faso.
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