UNESCAP
participated in the Third World Water Forum
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The
Third World Water Forum
was recently hosted by the
Government of Japan in three major cities: Kyoto, Shiga and
Osaka, from 16 to 23 March 2003.
In recognizing the importance of this Forum, which was
held for the first time in Asia and the Pacific, Dr. Kim Hak-Su,
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive
Secretary of UNESCAP took part in the Stakeholder Dialogue with
the Ministers, the Ministerial Conference and in the launching
of the World Water
Development Report (WWDR), jointly prepared by UN-Water
comprising all United Nations Agencies working in the water
sector, including UNESCAP. |
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In his address at the launch
of the WWDR, Mr. Kim spoke of the revitalization of UNESCAP’s work
programme into three thematic areas:
poverty reduction, emerging social issues and managing globalization, as
well as explained UNESCAP’s new
initiative on Providing Basic Services to the Poor through
Public-Private Partnerships: UNESCAP Follow-up to WSSD.
A pilot project on providing water supplies to the poor in rural
and urban areas in Sri Lanka will be launched on 8-9 April 2003 in
Colombo.
Also participating in the
Forum was Mr. David Jezeph, Chief of the Water Resources Section.
Apart from being the Convenor for the Plenary
Session of the Day of Asia and the Pacific at the Forum, where
the keynote speech was delivered
by H.E. Mr. Emomali Rakhmonov, President of
the Republic of Tajikistan, Mr.
Jezeph also addressed the plenary
session on "UNESCAP's role and major activities in the water
sector". He was also
the Chairman of the Panel Discussion at the session “Asia and Pacific
Water Issues in the World Water Context”, organized by the Water
Resources Liaison Committee of the Science Council of Japan; the
Asia Pacific Association of
Hydrology and Water Resources; the
Japan Society of Hydrology and
Water Resources; Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport and UNESCAP.
Mr. Ti Le-Huu, Economic
Affairs Officer of the Water Resources Section
participated in the Forum as a panelist for the Session “Living
with Risk Towards Effective Disaster Reduction” organized by the
Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UN-ISDR) and Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) and was
also an invited speaker at the Session on “Basin Management and Public
Participation”.
In addition, representatives of the two subregional organizations of
UNESCAP: the UNESCAP/WMO
Typhoon Committee and WMO/UNESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones
participated in the Session on “Flood Mitigation” during the
programme on Flood Day of the Forum. Presentation of key activities of
the Typhoon Committee on regional
cooperation for flood mitigation was made by Dr. Roman L.
Kintanar, Coordinator of the Typhoon Committee Secretariat and
Mr. Liu Jin-Ping, Vice Chairman of the Working Group on Hydrology.
Similarly, important achievements of the Panel on Tropical
Cyclones on water-related disaster reduction and emerging key issues
were discussed by Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudry, Director
General of Pakistan Meteorological Department, Chairman of the
Panel for 2003-04 and concurrently Coordinator of the Technical Support
Unit of the Panel and Mr. A.N.H. Akhtar Hossain, Director
of Water Resources Board of
Bangladesh. Participation of
the above representatives of the Typhoon Committee
and Panel on Tropical Cyclones was
arranged by UNESCAP and WMO and funded by their respective Trust Funds
and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan.
During the Forum, the Working Group on Hydrology of the Typhoon
Committee also held its working session to
prepare for the Regional Workshop on “Implementation of the
Hydrological Component of the
Regional Cooperation Programme
Implementation Plan” to be held in Beijing in September 2003.
Related link:
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