Carlos Fernández-Jáuregui: "It is not possible to manage water resources according to political distribution"
Carlos Fernández-Jáuregui: "It is not possible to manage water resources according to political distribution"
It is a triple challenge. First, to bring together technical staff at the international level, as well as to receive support at the national level. The second challenge is to reach the millennium goals of the United Nations Organization by 2015, and above all to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe or safe drinking water. Finally, the third challenge is to turn this office into a Berritzegune of the United Nations on water.
When Zaragoza became the headquarters of the Expo, Spain got another element to host the Office of the Decade of Water. At this time, Expo and the United Nations Office are planning to hold several events together, but the initiatives are different: Expo has a duration of three months and the office will have a much longer duration.
I think the issue of water has changed conceptually in the last ten years and that many myths are disappearing. There is no shortage of water, but a crisis in the management of water resources. The problem is not scarcity, the problem is governability.
There are essential conditions. First: the management of water resources must be carried out with the participation of politicians, technicians and the community. And I want to highlight the community. The Community has had the opportunity to review, decide and influence the management of water resources in very few places in the world. It is usually decided by politicians and technicians. The second indispensable condition is that the management of water resources is carried out exclusively within the hydrographic or aquifer basin, not being possible that the management of water resources is carried out according to the political distribution of a province or a State. Political divisions are in most cases arbitrary.
The question is interesting. It is important to know that water is not a source of conflict, but has always been a source of collaboration. There have always been more agreements than disagreements. Unfortunately, it is true that a bad news is much more photogenic for the press than a good new fabric. We are convinced that the shared management of water resources is possible and we believe it is the responsibility of all to see that the water problem is a problem of equity and human rights.
The water crisis is a crisis of governability. The improvement of the water resources of a country, province or autonomy goes through the fulfillment of five conditions. To begin with, maximum level neutral water authorities must be created. Second, this country must have a modern water resources law that includes advances in knowledge, whose main challenge is the effective participation of the community. And the third requirement for good governance is to have human resources capable of managing water, not only of engineers of water resources, but also of managers: we need managers who have received training in water. The fourth condition is to have adequate financial resources to carry out actions that reflect the needs of society. The fifth condition, which is also fundamental, is information; access to information on the management of public administration is a right of all.
If these five conditions are met, we can say that a country has achieved sufficient governability. Many developed countries do not meet all, while in some developing countries all requirements are met. And that shows that the water crisis is not only that of poor countries, it is a human problem.
This response is not from the United Nations, but from the Community. The infrastructure needs will depend on the state of water resources management in the CAPV. The priorities depend on the region.
The concept of water quality is relative. Water should be safe, that is, drinking. The ingredients or the flavor of the water in this place are secondary. All waters are good if they comply with the standards established by the United Nations World Health Agency.
The person who uses water must return it to its original source in the same conditions. The concept that the polluter pays is not logical, because the one who has a lot of money can infect and pay without problems.
They taught me in class that water was a renewable and inexhaustible resource. But now we see that it is quite the opposite: we have to inform children that water is a weak and fatal resource. Every day we have less average water. Why? For the continuous growth of the population. That is, the same amount of water must be distributed among more and more people. In addition, people increasingly have more quality of life and use more water. The consequences of climate change are also there: increasing droughts, increasingly intense floods. Therefore, we must think that water is no longer an inexhaustible natural resource. But we also think that water must be a human right that cannot be denied to anyone because it is a source of life.
Yes, that's right. This year has been declared the year of sanitation, since it cannot be allowed every three seconds to die a child in the world for not having safe sanitation. That is unacceptable. And as an office of “Water as a Source of Life”, we have to achieve an unexceptional goal: that half of those people have a safe sanitation.
This means that the obligations of rich countries to help poor countries are very large. Commitment must be much greater than simple support. One cannot speak of illegal immigration in Europe, when the origin of these immigration is the lack of resources in the places of origin. If disadvantaged areas are strengthened, illegal immigration will likely decline until it disappears. There are elements that should make us think that the issue of water is a matter of equity and ethics.
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