The 5th World Water Forum, the largest water-related event in the world, concluded in Turkey on Sunday, or the World Water Day, with firm commitments of tackling global water challenges jointly in the context of sustainable development.

Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council (WWC), addresses the opening ceremony

of the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul of Turkey, March 16, 2009.    (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

The forum, organized every three years by World Water Council (WWC) and the host country, was attended by a record of 25,000 participants from all over the world, including a number of heads of state, more than 90 ministers, 63 mayors, 156 delegations and 148 parliamentarians.

IMMINENT WATER CRISIS

During the seven-day forum, the attendees agreed that water is an increasingly vital resource in the 21st century, when we are challenged by overpopulation, climate change, ecosystem collapse, urbanization, consumption pattern change and financial crisis.

"Water is the most fundamental element of life," said Turkish President Abdullah Gul at the opening ceremony of the forum on March 16, which is also attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon, Crown Prince Willem Alexander of the Netherlands, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito Kotaishi and South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo.

"It's clear that we have to place special importance on water," since it is "one of the most crucial elements" that drive sustainable development, Gul said.

According to statistics of the forum, only 2.5 percent of all the water on Earth is freshwater, two-thirds of which is in glaciers and polar ice caps. Therefore, available freshwater represents less than 1 percent of the world's total water stock.

Furthermore, a study released at the forum showed that 85 percent of the world's population live on the droughty land of the Earth. More than 1 billion people living in arid and semiarid parts of the world have little access to renewable water sources.

According to the 3rd UN World Water Development Report released by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization during the forum, more than 900 million people still have no access to drinking water and 2.5 billion people are still deprived of sanitation.

Meanwhile, the world's population, currently estimated at 6.6 billion, is growing by about 80 million each year, which means demand for freshwater is increasing by 64 billion cubic meters a year.

World Resources, a joint publication of the UN Environment Program, the World Bank and the World Resources Institute, warned that "the world's thirst for water is likely to become one of the most pressing resource issues of the 21st century."

PLATFORM FOR DEBATE AND SHARE

Some 100 discussions or roundtables were held during the event with a variety of topics, including climate change, transboundary waters, water-related risk management, managing and protecting water resources and water investment.

Three documents were adopted at the forum, namely the Istanbul Declaration of Heads of State on Water; Istanbul Water Consensus for Local and Regional Authorities; and Istanbul Ministerial Statement, underlining the acceptance of sustainable water schemes at all levels.

A number of prizes was awarded to those who contributed to cooperation and development of water resources. Chinese city of Guangzhou was honored on Wednesday the first-class Mexico Water Prize for the government's excellent water management in recent years.

A water expo and a water fair were also staged during the forum, which attracted hundreds of companies from Germany, Netherlands, China, South Korea and Japan, to show the latest water-related technology and products.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were highlighted among all the discussions. One of the MDGs, created in 2000 during the millennium summit, is to halve the population without sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation by 2015.

"The 5th World Water Forum comes at a crucial time, since more than half of the time proposed to achieve the MDGs has passed," said Oktay Tabasaran, secretary general of the forum.

Water privatization turned out to be a thorny issue which officials avoided to mention. Some 200 activists of the People's Water Forum, a counter forum of the official one, convened Thursday to protest against water privatization and present alternative visions of water management.

On the opening day of the forum, Turkish police prevented a group, which accused the forum of water commercialization, from protesting in front of the main venue.

GLOBAL COOPERATION HIGHLIGHTED

The future of water resources "does not only rest on technological progress, but also and mostly on political commitments," WWC President Loic Fauchon said at the opening ceremony.

"Water is the life line for human survival and development, also a critical material foundation for sustainable social and economic development," Chinese Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said Friday, or the "Asia-Pacific Day" of the forum.

Moreover, participants at all levels reached the consensus that cooperation on water is crucial among technocrats, policy makers, local authorities, research institutions and states.

China, Japan and South Korea inked a joint statement during the forum to insure exchange mechanisms and promote trilateral cooperation on the ubiquitous resource.

According to the statement, the three sides shared the view that it's crucial to speed up the tripartite cooperation in an effort to strengthen mutual partnership.

They recognized that a platform is needed for the three countries to share information simultaneously and discuss coordinated actions since the risks are both regional and global.

"Bridging Divides for Water, the over-arching theme of the 5th World Water Forum, has reflected the pressing need for international cooperation to address global water crisis," said Chen Lei.