22/03/2011 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
"The issue of water encompasses complex realities affecting all the world's regions and populations, especially the most vulnerable, as water is very much the focus of sharp tensions, threatening regional stability and security worldwide". So said Bernard Marquet, member of the PACE Environment Committee and author of the report "Water – a source of conflict", speaking at the Conference on conventions on international water, organised in Monaco by the Monegasque National Council and the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. The numerous points of convergence shown up by a comparison of the map of conflicts in the world with the map of water stress affecting the planet was most revealing, he added.
In his report, to be examined during the Assembly’s plenary session in Strasbourg on 15 April, Mr Marquet asks Europe's governments to recognise that access to water is a fundamental human right and to apply and - if necessary - revise the rules of international water law. The systems for the joint management of transfrontier rivers and aquifers should be reviewed and made more transparent, and information flows between all the stakeholders should be improved. The parliamentarians also recommend setting up a programme of assistance and co-operation with countries suffering from water shortages.