Helming also believes that the concrete solutions for resolving a large part of water scarcity is relatively simple. Avoid wastage. Raising financial investment is important in his view-as is the concern of most of the delegates at the International Freshwater Conference, but he argues that the investment needed will reduce substantially if wastage is brought down.

"Most of the water wastage occurs in agriculture. Developing countries can be taught without much difficulty to use more effective, low-cost technologies to overcome this problem," Helming said. "The other big wastage occurs in urban cities that have leaking water pipes. That's easy to fix too without incurring much investment."

Helming's company GTZ is owned by the German Government and has extensive experience in the field of international development. The company has been given the contract to run this Conference Secretariat. Helming is a clearly a visionary leader. With over 20 years of experience in the water sector and as Head of the water sector at GTZ, his opinion is widely respected by Ministers, International Organizations and NGO's.

"We have to overcome the 20th century industrial and technical paradigm of water management which exploited nature in an unsustainable way, said Helming. "In the 21st century we need to regain a sense of respect for nature because we have found that nature is not to be played with. It must be conserved."

Helming cites the example of the Aral Sea. "The river was diverted to grow cotton and now it has dried out. It's a huge environmental disaster of human livelihood and nature and its irreversible," said Helming. Water is a finite resource. If we don't exploit it properly we will have an Aral Sea situation all over the world sooner or later."

There are some countries, especially in the developed world making substantial inroads in reducing water wastage. Germany is one of them.

"The country has been very successful in reducing the water consumption per capita," said Helming. "We are now using only 30 percent of what we were using 20 years back. The consumption of German people is now 125 liters per day. Compare that to the United States, which is 300-400 litres a day."

Experts like Helming feel that one of the ways that developing countries can be more effective in managing water resources to reduce their per capita consumption and wastage is by involving the private sector.

"You don't need a civil servant to operate a pump," he explains. "It is beneficial to call in the private sector to manage the water system, especially in those countries where it is clear that public services are failing. The water resources and infrastructure must be owned and safeguarded by the Governments though."

An example, Helming cites is that of South Africa. He explains: "The country has a very strong water law. Water belongs to the state and everybody represented by the state. They have employed the private sector in a very positive way. South Africa has already reached the millennium target of halving the number of people with lack of access to clean water by 2015."

Helming also believes that an integrated and innovative water management policy is key in resolving the global water crisis.

"One needs to redefine the water sector," he said. "If you like, you can call it-The water sector. It would include power, agriculture, environment sector. And one of the problems in the conference in Hague last year was that these sectors did not talk to each other."

The German Government has tried to remedy that by inviting officials from all of these Ministries at the Bonn Conference. The objective is to come up with an integrated water policy.

Helming seems to be optimistic about the conference.

"I have a good feeling about the outcome of the conference," he said. "The participants seem to be happy. I think we will get a clear message related to tackling poverty and environment vis-à-vis water."