World Water Forum: Helping to make a splash on sustainable development - Main contents

The forum held in Korea this week hosts high-level discussions on global water challenges

This week I have been attending the largest global water conference, the World Water Forum, in the Republic of Korea. The forum, held every three years, gathers 35,000 representatives from over 170 countries to engage on the discussions on global water challenges - a necessity if we want to achieve sustainable development.

It was really important for me to be there and show the European Union's strong support to making universal access to drinking water and sanitation one of our priorities. To achieve this, we need to ensure that, when dealing with the growing demand for water, food and energy, we use a comprehensive approach that allows us to avoid negative consequences, for instance, on the environment. This is one the most important topics we were discussing at the Forum.

In the international context, the EU is promoting the concept of 'water diplomacy', which tries to reconcile the different uses of water resources - drinking water and sanitation, food production, industry and energy.

We want to build on the success achieved over the last decade, while more directly targeting the remaining challenges. More than 2.5 billion euros have been committed in the water sector, and more than 60 countries are currently implementing water projects with the financial assistance of the European Union.

There are plenty of successful examples, such as a project in a town in Mozambique which has helped to develop the water supply capacity locally and to install two water supply units. The approach here has had a multiplier effect as it has since been replicated in four other towns in the region. Some 600,000 people have initially benefitted from the project.

Although the Millennium Development Goal target on drinking water has been reached, large disparities still remain across regions. In addition, the target on sanitation is still among those that are most off-track. The statistics are challenging - about 800 million people still do not have access to drinking water and 2.5 billion people lack access to basic levels of sanitation.

To really make a difference on this area, we must break the silence around poor sanitation and recognise water not only as an issue on its own but as a cross-cutting issue. I am glad that events like this week’s forum will allow us to work together to make this a reality. Quite simply, preserving water means preserving life itself. We must do what we can make sure that everyone can access clean water and sanitation, wherever they live.