Six days to focus our energies and find solutions

Political decision makers, economic actors and members of civil society, researchers, NGO representatives, I would like to thank you for your participation today at the sixth World Water Forum at Parc Chanot in Marseille.

This city, with its exemplary know-how in water treatment and management, is home to the World Water Council. The Council, the City of Marseille and the French Government are involved in this vast international event where 20,000 visitors are expected during the next six days.

A result of 2 years of preparation, this Forum builds upon previous editions and calls for a new era : Time for Solutions. It invigorates energy, captures the attention and acts as a sound box, amplifying the voices of water to give them an impact across the world.

Less than three months from the Rio+20 summit, the Forum aims at putting water higher on the political agenda. We need to find concrete solutions, politically and financially realistic, socially acceptable and adapted to local contexts.

Ten individuals die every minute due to a lack of water. The Internet has created a planet village. We have imagined and designed an Internet platform to collect everybody’s solutions, and also a “village of solutions” that covers 4,000 m².

A place for exchange and brainstorming, the 6th World Water Forum has established 12 priorities and three conditions for success. Among these priorities, the access to safe drinking water and sanitation services is one to be especially detached. Besides contributing to public health improvment, the process of providing water and sanitation generates jobs to unskilled workers, thus it contributing also to poverty eradication and sustainable social-economic development.

As vital resource, water must be managed wisely especially in the case of rivers that flow through two or more countries. Experience shows that ther are more examples of cooperation than conflict in managing transboundary river basins.

More than 1000 high-level stakeholders are gathered here in Marseille to share solutions to worldwide water problems and commit themselves to their implementation. The time has come for actions on the ground at all levels of decision-making.

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