“In 2030, one in two people could be living in water stress, more than 780 million people in the world do not have drinking water and it is necessary to have between 2 and 5 thousand liters of water to produce the daily food of a person, those figures indicate the importance of water worldwide”. With that speech, Álvaro Fischer, President of Fundación Chile, initiated the conferences of the first Water Week in Latino America, special summit organized by Fundación Chile and Diario Financiero, which takes place in the Sheraton Miramar Hotel, Viña del Mar, and which brings together about 80 exhibitors from different nationalities between March 17th and 22nd.
Fischer said that “The water is the main focus of our institution, being 2013 the international year of the cooperation in the area of water, and the year of the Innovation, declared by the Government of Chile. In this regard, the innovation would be one of the most important topics to address the challenge of water”. These words were presented in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Mayol; the Minister of Public Works, Loreto Silva; and the Mayoress of Viña del Mar, Virginia Reginato.
On the other hand, Roberto Sapag, Director of Diario Financiero, said that “This topic is at its peak. The society must be ready to take over the existing deficits and the coming challenges”.
The First Water Summit in Latin America pretends to be a unique platform to exchange ideas, experiences, and practices for a better use and management of water in the countries of the region. Its goal is to generate opportunities for the exchange of international experiences, where the adversities and difficulties have become opportunities for the innovation and the creation of collaborative networks.
The experts will discuss the water resources challenges for Latin America and the world, the role of science in the resolution of water conflicts, the modernization processes of the resource, the global impacts on water resources in the implementation of guidelines and performance standards about social and environmental sustainability, and the perspective of the OECD on water governance, among other issues.
Gerard Payen, AquaFed President and Chair of UNSGAB, spoke about the global water goals, ensuring that what we want is to achieve common goals regarding the water resource.
According to Payen, a goal should be achieved to improve three aspects: the universal access to the resource, clean and drinking water, and the water resources management. “The governments should progressively give access to water, but to a safe drinking water, accessible, available in an equitable manner. This is not easy to implement, but it should be gradually done”, he added.
Furthermore, John Briscoe from Harvard University referred to the challenge of water security in a changing world. According the expert, societies face two types of water risk: droughts and floods. In both cases, it is fundamental to have an adequate infrastructure, he added. He also talked about the proper management of the cases of Australia and the Mississippi River.
“The water management is a dialectical process. There are challenges and answers, and new challenges and answers. As one professor said to me once, water management is never enough, there will always be new problems”, he said.
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