07/06/2011 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 07.06.2011 – Up to 150 lawmakers and water experts will be meeting in Strasbourg on 10 June 2011 to shape a message on behalf of the world’s parliamentarians to next year’s World Water Forum in Marseille – a global gathering which aims to expand the right of access to water and sanitation, and ensure more sustainable management of water resources.
Better laws on water, parliamentary oversight of public money spent on water projects, and the prospects for a “World Water Parliament” will be among the topics discussed at the meeting, organised by the Environment Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in collaboration with the International Committee of the World Water Forum.
The overall aim of the event – the second organised by PACE – is to prepare a “parliamentary political process” for the latest Forum, which opens in Marseille in March 2012.
World Water Forums have been organised every three years since 1997, bringing together many stakeholders to place water on the international political agenda, raise global awareness of the issues and propose solutions to existing problems.
The meeting takes place from 9 a.m. to around 5.30 p.m. in Room 9 of the Palais de l’Europe, Strasbourg, and is open to the press.