Speech by the Prince of Orange, Chair of UNSGAB, at the Asahi World Environmental Forum 2010

Distinguished participants and guests, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here today at the Asahi Environmental Forum.

I welcome this initiative of Asahi Shimbun to organise this event. You show that media can do more than simply report on current affairs. You see it as your task to look beyond today, and to reflect on the world of tomorrow : the newspaper as a window to the future.

You have chosen a theme that unites us all, whether we live in the East or the West. My home is 10,000 kilometres away, near the North Sea, in a country with totally different geographical features. But distance means nothing when we are talking about water.

Water is life. Our life.
Water plays a vital role in almost every aspect of life. Our economy; our food; our safety; our health; our nature; our living environment; our culture. Water - or a shortage of it - is a decisive factor in all of them.

The excavations at Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, show us that two thousand years ago your ancestors were masters of water management. They had a sophisticated system of canals for irrigation, transport, defence and flood prevention.

The Netherlands was also built by water managers, great and small. Without them, living in my country - which is partly below sea level - would hardly be possible. The term 'water management' hadn't yet been coined in prehistoric times, of course. But as early as 1500 BC, farmers were digging ditches to keep their homes dry.

Nowadays, we take it all for granted: dry feet, clean water from the tap, being able to move around freely, and having enough food at affordable prices. But you only have to open a newspaper, or switch on the television to see the reality.

Hardly a week goes by without a disaster involving water.
This summer, millions of people in Pakistan lost their homes in devastating floods. Nearly 2,000 people were killed. The impact of the disaster is immense. Harvests have failed. Farmland is useless. Roads and railway lines have been destroyed. Schools and hospitals have been swept away. Infectious diseases are rife. There is no drinking water. It will take a very long time for the people in the stricken areas to get their lives back in order.

The reverse happened in Russia this summer, with the worst drought in many years. Twenty per cent of the wheat harvest failed and devastating forest fires polluted the air in Moscow.

We need to take account of changing weather patterns. Far more rain falling in some places, and far less in others. That applies to Japan and the Netherlands as much as to Pakistan and Russia.

The term 'natural disaster' creates an impression of impotence - as if we are powerless to prevent it.
But that is not true.
The choices we make - or fail to make - increase our vulnerability.

Each tree felled on a river bank can make the difference between a minor flood and a devastating landslide.
Every new housing estate or factory built near the mouth of a river can have a radical impact on the water regime.

Water is our friend. But it can also cause havoc if we take too little account of it.

That is why we shouldn't see water as a stand-alone issue. It should be factored into all our ambitions, plans and projects. Water is everywhere. It is time to recognise this reality, and act accordingly.

The question should not be 'how do we keep the water out?' but 'how do we give water the space it needs in our cities, villages and built-up areas?'. Whoever ignores and excludes water makes an enemy. Whoever welcomes water and gives it space has an ally.

Water management decisions are often made in the context of agriculture, industry or infrastructure. An urgent message of the UN's 2008 World Water Development Report was that water managers must build bridges to other sectors if they are to have any hope of influencing decisions about sustainable development.

Integrated water resources management is one way of doing that. We have to link water to spatial planning, economic policy, agriculture, health and disaster prevention. We also have to join hands across national borders. The impact of climate change on the world's shared freshwater resources makes the need for viable transboundary management instruments even more pressing.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, COP 15, focused attention on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential that we do so. But even if we manage to make crystal-clear agreements on that issue, we will still have to adapt to the demands water places on us. Water is after all the primary medium through which climate change influences Earth's ecosystems and thus the livelihood and well-being of societies.

So at COP 16, later this year in Cancún, water and adaptation must have a more prominent place on the agenda.

Further down the road, in the lead up to the next Earth Summit, Rio +20, there is a need to agree on a common approach to water's role in adaptation to climate change and to develop effective policy instruments. Special attention should be given to sustainable ecosystem management.

We have seen some amazing feats of water management over the past few centuries. Take the works on the Tone River, here in Japan, which I will be visiting tomorrow. The Dutch Delta Project is another example. But I am convinced that the heyday of water management is not behind but ahead of us.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have talked about the essential role of water in nature, in landscapes, cities and villages. Now I should like to zoom in a little closer.

In those cities and villages, there are houses, schools, hospitals and businesses. And at this level, too, water is vital.

His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Naruhito, speaking at the follow-up conference to the International Year of Sanitation earlier this year, hit the nail on the head when he said:

'Safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities are indispensable for wholesome and civilised living.'

Yet 2.5 billion people still have no access to these basic facilities. The same people we expect to be working on their development - to be sending their children to school, and to be feeling responsible for the future of their country.

But how can you work and learn properly without enough clean water, without even a toilet? Would you send your children to a school that had no toilets? 440 million school days are lost each year through illness caused by poor hygiene. Poor sanitation costs sub-Saharan Africa more money than all the development aid and debt relief going into the region put together.

It is more than ten years since the United Nations made a unanimous commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. These are clear agreements, including on water. It was agreed that the number of people with no access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation would be halved by 2015. An ambitious target.

Japan was one of the countries who took the lead in tackling this problem. In 2004 the United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation - UNSGAB - was set up with Japan's support. The aim was to put pressure on leaders, so that the water and sanitation targets would be achieved.

UNSGAB increases awareness that sustainable solutions are needed, and builds bridges between people, organisations and countries. The first Chair was the late Ryutaro Hashimoto. After his sudden death in 2006, I took up the challenge to take over. It is a job I do with conviction and passion and I enjoy the great support of His Imperial Highness Naruhito who is honorary president of the Board.

Much has been achieved in the past ten years.

Figures from UNICEF and the World Health Organisation show that nearly 1.5 billion people have acquired drinking water from an improved source since 1990. We will very probably achieve the MDG target for drinking water by 2015. I would ask all the sceptics who don't believe in the power of international agreements to consider this enormous leap forward. At the same time, I must also point out that water quality is still an issue that warrants far more attention. If we supply people with water, it must of course be clean and safe to drink.

Around 1.3 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990. That is very impressive. But even at this rate we will not achieve the MDG target. We could give up, and decide that it was simply not to be. But there are still five years to go. We can make a final sprint. We can achieve the target, but only if we give it everything we've got.

A collective, coordinated response is needed. We have to combine the efforts of everyone working on the problem.

That is why, on behalf of UNSGAB, I am making an urgent appeal for support for "Sustainable Sanitation, the Five Year Drive to 2015", as was proposed and supported during the follow-up conference to the International Year of Sanitation, here in Japan. The Drive aims to achieve the sanitation target by focusing and accelerating all activities in this field.

Next week, during the Millennium Development Summit in New York, I shall present the Five Year Drive proposal to the international community. We have to keep the promise we made ten years ago. So I hope to secure widespread support for this important initiative.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I have told you about water, my great passion: water that is all around us, the source of life, food, growth, development and health.
Water is in all the MDGs. It's everywhere in our daily life. It is 'indispensable for wholesome and civilised living'.
Let us treat it accordingly. By including it in all our plans. By adapting to the demands it makes. By giving it a prominent place on the agenda at Cancún.

Ladies and Gentlemen.
Talking is one thing, taking action is something else. And that's what 2.5 billion people are waiting for. We can help them. We can make the difference by taking our responsibilities and keeping the promises that already have been made. Actual implementation of all the earlier international agreements would bring us at full steam to achieve the MDG targets for water and sanitation. Full media attention will help us and our political leaders remembering those promises. The Asahi Shimbun has taken up the gauntlet. I hope many other media will follow.

I wish you an interesting and refreshing conference.
Thank you.