Americas ok.indd - World Water Council

The intuitive relationship between water managementand socioeconomic development is often confoundedby a lack of suitable indicators. The absence of suchindicators complicates the identification of cause andeffect that would enable the role of water in growthand development to be isolated from other economic,social, and environmental effects. Although emphasis hasshifted toward demand management, rather than supplyaugmentation, a debate on how to reach an equitableand sustainable balance between the two persists. Whilegovernments have traditionally established priorities withrespect to water, this is changing with the introductionof market-based approaches. Introduced to improveincremental benefits for the scarce available resourcesgrowth and poverty alleviation such objectives have notalways been clearly demonstrated and despite nobleintentions society often pursues alternate objectives.Competing demands among various sectors of society andthe economy continue to stimulate debate on the mostappropriate mechanisms to manage water.Brazil (2005) has proposed a common water resourcesmanagement strategy for the Latin American andCaribbean countries, towards the adoption of commonmeasures for poverty alleviation and for reducing therestrictions to development imposed by an inadequateaccess to water in the hemisphere. The core of thestrategy rests on common long-term actions for solvingthe major water management problems in national andtransboundary waters. The convergence of nationalwater policies for the sustainable use of water as well asSouth-South cooperation processes for the creation ofa Common Water Resources Development Fund, amongothers, are posed as specific objectives of the strategy.As a result of meetings held by Organizations of theCivil Society during the preparatory process for the 4thWorld Water Forum, the six basic statements listed in Box7.3 were put forward.While the region has accepted the premise ofsustainable development it continues to debate theemphasis that should be afforded to economic, social,and environmental goals within the national context.Proposals for the maximization of economic growthsubject to social and environmental restrictions havebeen met with counterproposals to maximize equity orenvironment, subject to restrictions imposed by the othertwo vertices of the sustainable development triangle.Previously irreconcilable struggles between those thatregard water as an economic good and those regardingwater as a human right are beginning to give way toproposals 51 aiming to show both views are compatible andmutually beneficial. The remaining challenge is to developappropriate mechanisms for maximizing the contributionof water to clearly define and strategically pursue social orenvironmental objectives at national and regional levels.51Such as one presented by FAN-CA.694th World Water ForumBox 7.3 Statements of Civil Society Organizations during the preparatory meetings• That water be a fundamental human right and natural and cultural patrimony of nations, guarantee its accessin quality, quantity, and continuity to all persons and societies, especially to poor communities and to the mostvulnerable sectors;• That water be a priority within public policies;• That civil society participates in a binding manner in decision making through adequate means and at adequatelevels in the planning, management, and regulation of water and its services;• That management, use, and distribution of water be made according to rules of justice, equity, andsustainability;• That rural communities have secure water supply sources with legal provisions to guarantee all uses made bysuch communities;• That the water-related function of forests, prairies, moors, wetlands and all natural vegetation land cover beconserved; and that an integrated management and conservation of watersheds, including transboundary riverbasins, be developed.SOURCE: CN/RCA (2005)