Kofi Annan calls for clean water, not hot air at Earth Summit

The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) is being held in Johannesburg from August 24 to September 4, ten years after the first Rio Earth summit. Is this the conference to end world poverty and create environmental security?

Hardly. But organisers hope the summit will be more than just an expensive talk-shop, and bring real results through new partnerships between non-government agencies, governments and the private sector.

The focus is not primarily on the environment this time, and organisers are not calling it "another Earth Summit". Instead, United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan has urged that this be a practical summit, focusing on the do-able things to do with water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity, and how changes in all these may change the fate of people living in poverty.

World Vision applauds the practical, poverty-focused goals stressed by the Secretary General.

This gives WSSD “a more holistic approach to development and the environment which aims to provide solutions and actions rather than only highlight the problems and concerns,” says Kel Currah, leader of the World Vision delegation to WSSD. It is all about partnerships.

World Vision will lead a workshop on freshwater management that can help to end poverty in local areas. The workshop will be led by Braimah Apambire, a hydrologist trained in Ghana, and a former Professor at the Desert Research Institute, who is now working for World Vision.

His focus will be on a new West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI), co-ordinated by World Vision, but comprising partnerships with several other NGOs, communities, foundations such as the Conrad Hilton Foundation, and governments.

“It will invest US$40 million over five years to increase access to services and promote sustainable management of water resources for hundreds of thousands of West Africans,” said Mr Apambire.

He acknowledged that not all change can come from governments “from the top down”. Poverty is also addressed by people and partnerships happening “from the bottom up”.

World Vision’s involvement in the West Africa Water Initiative, says Mr Apambire, will support the WSSD call for partnerships between the public and private sectors to meet development needs. IT was an example of a tangible effort that will help address the Millennium Development Goal to increase access of the world’s poor to water supply.

By Ted Vandeloo, World Vision

See also:
Healthy environment versus healthy people:
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