Impressions of the Third World Water Forum

Monday 17^th of March

Today we started slowly: through a maze of small alleys we went for the subway. On our way, we stumbled into a lot of ancient temples. After this walk it was time for a breakfast/ lunch. When we visited a very modern bar, we were surprised to find our coffee in the most expensive china.

At the forum we had a round through the stands with information of all convenors and stakeholders. This third World Water Forum is a world of its own. You all know the area conferences and the world congress of JCI. Maybe you can remember that at a week of congress you meet a lot of people of different countries. At this forum it is exactly the same. Over a period of 7 days, 5000 participants and a tenfold of visitors will come to various parts of the forum which take place in Kyotok, Osaka and Shiga.

Big difference at this forum is that you meet all kind of water stakeholders from different governments, institutions, businesses and NGO’s: They all say the same thing about providing a better future for water, but in the mean time they all propose different solutions. Still we meet some interesting opportunities to link water questions in one part of the world to solutions in other parts or even better: learn people to invent their own solutions.

Today we visited the presentation of a book that is written by 29 authors, both from the North and the South. It provides simple solutions for local water management – problems. Apparently it is a much asked for book.

Next, there was a presentation of the book about the Johannesburg summit (summit for sustainable development, September last year). Standing in the corner of the fairat the Dutch stand, beer flowed freely and food was great. It was very crowded! This must have been very sympathetic to the Dutch filmmaker, who presented his new movie “Japanese Rapids” just near the Dutch stand and therefore he had a big audience.

In a hurry, we returned to our hotel, changed clothes at a dazzling speed and went for the special party thrown to the Dutch delegation by our Ambassador. It was very nice and with a group of about 20, 25 people we barely managed to catch the last subway of the day.

Back home we had to prepare our workshop, which must be ready on Wednesday. Lights went out at 3 a.m.

Hard work at a workshop