Toespraak Ploumen (Buitenlandse handel en ontwikkelingssamenwerking) conferentie Wings for Water

Toespraak | 22-03-2013

Your Royal Highnesses, Madam President, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

In his book, The Blue Economy, Belgian expert Gunter Pauli describes a new approach to sustainability.

He argues that taking a smarter and more innovative look at what nature has to offer could have great benefits for us in the future.

Pauli’s gift for looking at challenges from a new perspective is fascinating.

And it’s something we can learn from, too.

For years now we’ve been working on the Millennium Development Goals.

We’ve made a lot of progress on drinking water and sanitation.

At the same time, a world of sustainable water management is still a long way off.

Large parts of the planet are subject to flooding.

While others have to cope with water scarcity.

And a lack of clean drinking water and basic sanitation kills thousands of people every day – most of them children.

These may seem enormous challenges. But there are others, too.

River basins are now sources of conflict.

The water requirements of our large cities are growing.

Surface and ground water pollution is becoming a big problem.

And I haven’t even mentioned climate change.

The water problems we face are endlessly complex and show no regard for national borders.

We can’t tackle water problems in the same way anymore.

We have to keep in mind that industry, agriculture, the environment, our economic prosperity and our own welfare all depend on water.

So a top-down approach run by donors and the UN won’t be enough.

We have to take an integrated approach, looking at all aspects of water together.

We need to consult all stakeholders:

businesses,

service providers and their users,

water managers and landowners,

as well as local communities.

They all need to be a part of effective, sustainable and integrated water management.

And where they have responsibilities, they need to shoulder their responsibilities.

This is all too clear in places where ecology, economic growth and natural disasters converge: river deltas and coastal areas.

Climate change has a major impact in such places.

Take Bangladesh, with its enormous river delta.

One of the most densely populated countries in the world.

A country whose people will be more and more at the mercy of its water unless we take action.

Global warming is increasing the amount of melt-water from the Himalayas. And sea levels are rising.

When the rivers overflow, people’s homes are swept away.

But water is not only a threat for the Bangladeshi people.

They depend on water for sustenance.

They rely on it for the fish they eat, and the rice and other crops they grow.

And that’s not all – there are other uses of water to consider.

The textiles industry needs large quantities to dye textiles.

Disposal of waste water from the factories into rivers causes severe environmental pollution.

And workers who lack access to basic facilities drink the water from the river, and wash with it.

All these things require effective water management at many levels.

All this is part of an integrated policy, a delta plan to which the Netherlands is contributing.

A policy in which all parties accept their responsibilities.

Only then can we use water in our wider efforts on health, poverty reduction and economic development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Netherlands wants to be more than simply a donor. We want to work on water solutions around the world.

Since the nineteenth century, the Dutch have had a lot of experience of living in densely populated and vulnerable delta regions.

Now demand for Dutch water expertise is growing, and we’re ready to help.

Minister Schultz van Haegen of Infrastructure and the Environment talked about this yesterday.

Our two ministries, together with the water sector, will ensure that in the future the Netherlands responds quickly and effectively to requests from abroad.

To help reduce disaster risks related to water.

We will combine the knowledge and expertise of Dutch NGOs, companies, knowledge institutions and government, and make experts readily available for customised advice.

For flooding, droughts, drinking water and sanitation.

For vulnerable developing countries and developed countries alike.

In this way, we hope to promote more systematic and integrated approaches to water challenges.

To prevent damage to peoples lives, the environment and economic development.

But that’s not all.

I want to see Dutch water specialists active throughout the world.

I’m talking to our Senior Experts Programme – also known as PUM – about gearing their efforts more to the water sector. By including more Dutch water experts in the database.

I’m also appealing to Dutch embassies to get PUM projects up and running where these could reinforce existing water programmes.

This will allow Dutch experts to use the experience they’ve gained in their careers to benefit water projects abroad.

But there is plenty of professional expertise in the wider business community, too.

This is also something I’m tackling in my policy – by making an extra fifty million euros available from the Sustainable Water Fund for good proposals submitted by NGOs, business and knowledge institutions.

At multilateral level, I’m campaigning for another major goal: better water management – for a sustainable and integrated approach.

I’m calling for a special focus on transboundary water management and the fair distribution of water among industry, agriculture and the environment. On the relationship between water and energy, and the vulnerability of the water cycle in the face of climate change.

As co-host of the global Thematic Consultation on Water, the Netherlands is playing an active part in the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda.

I would like to see global water security as a goal on that agenda.

And universal access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation as one of its targets.

The consultations have shown that many people agree with me on this.

I also want to highlight:

the need to collect and treat water adequately after it is used, before it flows back into the water system;

and the importance of better water governance: across sectors and river basins, at national and international level.

And now, I am very pleased to present the High level forum outcome statement. I am of course doing this on behalf of the other four co-hosts as well.

I would like to ask President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Ms Győri, Minister of State for EU Affairs of Hungary, and Mr Bobokalonov, Minister of Land Reclamation and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan, to join me at the podium.

President Johnson Sirleaf, I hope these conclusions will be a valuable contribution to the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

And to your upcoming conferences, too, Mr Bobokalonov and Ms Győri.

In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I want to say a special word of thanks to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange.

You have played a very important role in the field of water management at international level.

You have helped to shape the global water agenda.

You have campaigned with great success for the basic human right to water and sanitation.

So that women and men can live their lives in dignity.

I would like to express my great gratitude for all this.

Thank you.