World water council 3^rd world water forum / japan

 report on world water actions

 The World Water  Council made several commitments during the 2^nd world water forum .Among them, was the setting-up of a monitoring system  on actions to bring the World Water Vision to reality.This initial commitment, through a decision of the bureau and in close collaboration with Secretariat of the 3^rd world water forum,resulted in the establishment of the Water Action Unit, composed  of international water experts and located in the Water council headquarters.

The Water Action unit’s main  mission is « to provide a complete report on World Water Actions » to the 3^rd World Water Forum , to be held in kyoto, japan, on March 16-23,2003. This report  aims to reach several objectives, which are :

-To inform the public on what is happening both in their country and in their field of interest ;

-To evaluate which fields require increased efforts to face the current water challenges ;

-To raise awareness amongst the water community about on-going achievements, so as to increase desire to start new actions ;

-To monitor pledges and commitments announced at the 2^nd world water forum, and the resulting actions.

Thus, the Unit is seeking information and data, on all water related actions currently being implemented throughout the world, which are significant at the national level, or which show innovation and can be used as examples of good-or bad-practices.they will include :

-Action-oriented research tasks

-Project preparation or project implementation

-Awarness-raising campaigns

-Legal and institutional reforms

These actions will be related to all freswater issues, such as :

Water supply, sanitation and water-related diseases, irrigation, drainage, dams, river and lake basins, wetlands, groundwater, legislation, institutions, community participation, etc.

Such a real -time, worldwide census and evaluation of actions is something new, and requires a special participatory effort as well as opportunities to be developed to obtain a better coverage of the topic, and to gain fair  and contrasting presentations of controversial actions.

The first, draft of the World Water Actions report will be released in the second half of March 2002, and will provide the framework of the report and a first as-yet-incomplete census of actions.In due time, it will be sent to you to ask for your reactions.

In the meantime, we would like to invite you to start participating now.We have enclosed a form that we encourage you to send us back with information related to a water action with which you are familiar.

Or you can join the many active participants on the Virtual Water Forum.The virtual Water Forum is a website that has been developed in order to exchange information on global water issues, with the objective of having these issues more effectively dealt with at the 3^rd  World Water Forum. A special session called World Water Actions by Water Action Unit has been set up and the draft plan of the repport is available for comments and suggestions.

Please feel free to connect to the virtual session for an introductory visit. The address is as follow : http ://www.worldwaterforum.org/for/en/fshow.673.

Once connected, enter  « guest » in both fields.

To register as an active participant, follow the « How to Use the Vitual Water Forum » directions, at the following address :

http ://www.water-forum3.com/vwf/howtovwf/eng/index.html

World Water Actions

Please provide a brief description of the action that you suggest the Water Action Unit should report on, and indicate a source where more extensive information can be found on this action.

Kindly return this form to :

Water Action Unit c/o World Water Council

Fax : +33 4 91 99 41 01 -E -mail : action _unit@worldwatercouncil.org