BONN--Water
and agriculture issues are very dear to Margaret
Catley-Carlson. Because of her expertise and the
active role she has taken in the environmental
field, Catley-Carlson was asked to be the Conference
Facilitator for the International Conference on
Freshwater. Her position will allow her to play
a major role throughout the five days of discussion. "The
organizers of the conference realized that there
was going to be so many events going on and so
many different currents - ministers, governments,
all these stakeholder dialogues, NGOs," said
Catley-Carlson when asked about the significance
of her position during an interview with Conference
News Daily. "It was going to be necessary
to draw this all together at the end. They asked
me to lead a team of facilitators to try and make
that happen."
The
freshwater conference has brought together thousands
of people from across the globe with different perspectives
and different priorities. When asked what she felt
was the most important issue to be discussed Catley-Carlson
joked, "If I were saying that now I wouldn't be
a very good facilitator!" She continued saying, "Obviously
there are the ones that we know of- the question over
the proper role of government in water, how to establish
a regulatory framework, how to attract more resources
to the field. Then there's the service question. How
do we increase the adequacy of service, of water and
sanitation, of irrigation. Energy doesn't seem to be
too big of an issue raised here, but those are the
constant background questions that we have to keep
in mind.In front of those, it's quite interesting that
new issues are coming up - such as the particular role
of local governments, and the whole question of corruption
in the water sector and how you look at that and how
you deal with that- so some new issues are coming up
to."
Water
is one of the largest
geopolitical
issues of the century.
Over 2.5 billion people
do not have access
to clean water. The
freshwater conference
is providing participants
with the chance to
brainstorm ideas for
change and prepare
for Johannesburg 2002.
Catley-Carlson sees
preparing for Johannesburg
as one of many major
goals of this week. "Our
task is to contribute
to the emerging view
on how water should
be managed, given extra
push to integrate water
resource management,
given extra push to
new forms of sanitation,
and for people whom
this is their daily
work- to be a little
more aware of good
ideas and contacts," she
said. "But our
real task is to give
impetus and ideas to
the Johannesburg conference
in terms of saying,
'now look, this is
what we have to take
on.'"
Thus
far, Catley-Carlson
is pleased with the
discussion that has
taken place. "The
Multi-stakeholder dialogue
has been just superb, "she
said. "As always,
there are elements
more emphasized than
others, but I think
its been great."
Margaret Catley-Carlson
is the chairperson
of the Global Water
Partnership, and is
involved in multiple
worldwide efforts in
the area of water and
agriculture.
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