Preparations Underway for Major Water Summit

TOKYO, JAPAN - Senior government officials of countries across the Asia Pacific region, along with key delegates from concerned organizations and development agencies, are gathering to deliberate on the details of the first Asia Pacific Water Forum Summit.

The proposed summit, to be held in Oita Prefecture, Japan, in December 2007, will focus on measures that will ensure the effective delivery of adequate and safe water supply to critical areas in the region. The summit’s priority areas will be water financing, water-related disaster management and water for development and ecosystems.

According to the joint agency report, Asia Water Watch 2015, commissioned by ADB in 2006, about 669 million people in the Asia Pacific region are still without access to safe drinking water and 2 billion people lack access to improved sanitation facilities.

ADB is a key supporter of the Asia Pacific Water Forum and has been designated the lead organization for water financing and increasing public awareness and understanding of key water trends, issues and solutions for the summit.

“ADB has responded to international calls for increased water financing with our Water Financing Program 2006-2010, which aims to more than double our water investments over the next five-year period,” said ADB Vice President for Operations Liqun Jin.

The program aims to improve water services for 200 million people in both urban and rural areas and help introduce integrated water resources management in 25 river basins across the region.

Mr. Jin told participants at the steering committee meeting that is making preparations for the summit that ADB will commission a flagship report, Asian Water Development Outlook, for discussion during the summit.

The Asia Pacific Water Forum was established in September last year. It is a non-profit, non-partisan network that identifies and adopts solutions to water issues in the region. Its goal is to contribute to sustainable water management to achieve the targets of the millennium development goals, which were drawn up in 2000 by the UN Millennium Summit to reduce poverty and improve lives.

“We are confident that the summit will exert great impact on water development in the Asia Pacific region, as an integral component of development programs to achieve the millennium development goals in the developing countries,” said Mr. Jin.

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