Stockholm Statement Urges MDGs Summit to Highlight Water,Sanitation
Anchor: There have been calls on world leaders to highlight the issue of water and sanitation during the upcoming summit to review the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
The message was contained in a statement adopted at a conference to observe World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden on Friday.
Our London correspondent Tu Yun attended the week-long event and filed this report.
The Stockholm Statement says inadequate access to water and sanitation deprives billions of people, especially women and girls, of opportunities, dignity, safety and wellbeing.
Improved water management is key to food production, especially in a changing climate. And clean water and sanitation are among the most powerful preventative measures for child mortality.
Anders Berntell is Executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute and organizer.
"Good management of water resources and provision of drinking water and sanitation is a prerequisite for fulfilling all the MDGs. However, water is still not recognized as one of the most important cross-cutting issues that need to be addressed for the fulfillment of all the MDGs. Therefore we still believe there is a need for a statement."
The Stockholm Statement was overwhelmingly passed as the annual meeting came to a close in the Swedish capital city.
Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Water Security for the World Economic Forum, thus made the evocation on behalf of the delegates.
"We ask that the high level plenary meeting raise international commitments from all governments for the provision of water and sanitation for all, with a five-year push on sanitation which is lagging even further behind than water."
High Level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals will be held in New York in some ten days.
Tu Yun, CRI news, Stockholm, Sweden.