• Title: Opening Speech at the 7th Living Lakes Conference

• Subtitle: Speaker: Gila Altmann, Parliamentary State Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany Occasion: Opening Speech at the 7th Living Lakes Conference Location: Johannesburg, 23.8.2002
• Speaker: Parl. Staatssekretärin Gila Altmann
• Date: 23.8.2002

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Ladies and Gentleman
Dear friends

Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you on behalf of my Minister, Mr. Trittin.

For me the last two days were very impressive, full of contradictions, torn between the incredible beauty of St. Lucia and the huge degradation of land by eucalyptus and sugarcane plantages.

Next week, the world will look towards Johannesburg, where world leaders and representatives of many different groups within civil society will assemble at the World Summit for Sustainable Development to give the "Rio process" new impetus.

The agenda of this truly global summit will comprise all the topics that we need to address if we want to achieve a sustainable life style in the future. I hope this summit will generate new energy towards implementing the legacy that the UNCED in Rio 1992 has left us.

Most people in the world, however, will not measure how sustainable their life is by the number of political documents or the attendance of global conferences. They will measure it in terms of improvements to their everyday lives. They will measure it in terms of whether their children will have the opportunity to satisfy the basic needs of human beings like food, health and education.

They will measure it in many cases by asking whether they have a reliable access to drinking water or not.

An estimated 1.3 billion people across the world lack access to a reliable supply of drinking water and to 2.5 billion people have no access to proper sanitation. It is no coincidence that the topic of water is one of the major topics of the World Summit - the focus on women and their role in this context can't be excluded from.

Most of the people with water and sanitation problems live in Africa and Asia. It's mainly women who have to organise drinking water for the family - while the distances to fetch water are getting longer, that means more and more time is lost where the women - and girls - otherwise could have earned money or go to school. It is also mainly women who deal with to deal with the problems arising from lack of proper sanitation and family diseases in the follow up.

In less than 25 years two-thirds of the world population will be living in water-stressed countries. By 2020, water use is expected to increase by 40 per cent, and 17 per cent more water will be required for food production to meet the needs of the growing population.

As already mentioned lack of access to safe water supply and sanitation results in enormous cases of water-related epidemics, and more than an average of 5 million deaths, every year.

It is also a barrier to economic productivity in many developing countries.

The year 2002 was declared the international year of the mountains. Half of the water consumed by people comes from mountains. But the necessary ecosystem to keep the water coming is endangered by melting of the glaciers, wars, deforestation and tourisme.

Given these grave differences in water availability throughout the world, I am afraid that future conflicts between countries in the competition for water resources and environmental refugees will not remain science fiction. Water will become - in some cases has already become - a factor that will decide between peace and war.

Extremely alarming in this context are also the predictions of scientists about the consequences of the human induced climate change.

Irregularities in climate and weather are about to intensify the contrast between water-rich and water-poor countries.

The recent floods in parts of Eastern and Western Europe with billions Euro of damage give us an idea on how climate changes can all of a sudden cause a lot of suffering and damage, in context with other indicators like canalising the rivers, degradation of the soil by intensive agriculture, surface sealing und the destruction of the natural flood plains.

There is no alternative to a harmonized approach of the world community for solving those problems than - among others - to adopt and implement the Kyoto Protocol.

About ten years ago the Conference of the United Nations for Environment and Development (UNCED) set a frame in chapter 18 of Agenda 21 for protecting the quality and quantity of water and was put high on the UN-agenda.

In December 2000, the United Nations declared the coming year 2003 the International Year of Freshwater, thus once again underlining the importance that freshwater has for the development of human cultures.

In December 2001Germany hosted an International Conference on Freshwater, the results of which have been transported into the preparatory process for the World Summit.

Water will be one of the most outstanding sectoral issues of the World Summit. One of the most important recommendations of the Conference - to set up a similar goal on access to proper sanitation as it already exists as Millennium goal for access to safe drinking water - is one of the, unfortunately, still controversial points for discussion and solution in Johannesburg. I sincerely hope that we will be able to make an essential step forward on this issue in the next days.

Beside mountains lakes supply millions of people all over the world with water, food and numerous other resources. The Living Lakes Initiative demonstrates how people from different countries and cultures can interact with each other and exchange experience and ideas for a mutual goal: the sustainable management of large and very diverse lakes - if I compare lake Baikal and St. Lucia.

In the coming days you will exchange experiences of three lake areas: Lake St. Lucia in the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park which many of us have visited, Laguna de Bay in the Philippines and Lake Constance, which is shared by Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

This exchange of expertise will focus on the necessity of interaction of various stakeholders, be they governmental authorities or members of various major groups in civil society towards implementing Agenda 21 in the context of lake regions.

Projects like St. Lucia are not only regionally important but on a global scale. They preserve biodiversity, they have a positive effect on the climate and they can give as an example of sustainable use.

The global community has to learn, that this kind of conservation is a global service for the benefit and sake of the whole world - and like for any other service we should pay for it on a global level. There is still a long way for this kind of thinking, but we should be aware, that there is little time left.

I am certain that this conference will enable an efficient exchange of experience among the many different members of the Living Lakes network.

Finally I would like to wish you all success on the conference. Thank you for your attention.