Freshwater Caucus

<title>Freshwater Caucus</title>
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    <b class="small"> </b><br><h1>Freshwater Caucus</h1>
<h2>Recommendations for the Chairman's Text (PrepCom III)</h2>
<p>Actions are required to:</p>
<ul><li>Establish an international framework on freshwater that recognizes the following: the direct relationship between poverty and a lack of water security; water as a fundamental human right; the watershed and community as basic units of water management; and that water should be kept outside the purview of the World Trade Organization.
<li>Strengthen the international and national implementation of the international treaties and processes addressing freshwater resources and ecosystem health and the right to water, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 (Article 24), the Convention on Biological Diversity's thematic programme on inland water ecosystems, the 1971 Convention on Wetlands and the World Commission on Dams.  In addition, ensure that multilateral environmental agreements supercede all trade and investment agreements, within or outside WTO.
<li>Recognize the finite nature of water and its special place in sustaining life, and for these reasons ensure that water is not privatized and that it is kept in the public realm.
<li>Promote adoption of the Bonn recommendations with the clear acknowledgment that the majority of the world's water poor live in rural areas and depend on healthy ecosystems. There should be a commitment to address first and foremost the problems of the water poor. As stated in the Bonn recommendations, international financial institutions (IFI) should not impose private sector participation in the water sector as a conditionality for any types of funding. IFIs should not encourage private sector participation in water.  
<li>Increase public sector finance for sustainable management of freshwater and for the development of water-related infrastructure for meeting the basic needs of people while protecting and restoring ecosystems.
<li>Require governments to develop regulatory frameworks to ensure that private sector participation (if any) does not threaten ecosystems or people's access to water to meet basic needs today and for future generations.
<li>National, regional and local governments should encourage efficient use of water (especially for profit-making activities) and promote the maintenance of water flow regimes sufficient to protect (and where relevant restore) ecosystem functions (including wildlife and wildlife habitat). Measures to achieve efficiency and ecosystem protection and restoration should include the polluter pays principle, sound investments in water conservation, the reduction of subsidies and reformulation of market policies that encourage water-intensive agriculture, and the full cost accounting of water resources (subject to paragraph 18.8 of Agenda 21). Measures are needed to ensure compliance with water policies. 
<li>Support capacity building initiatives that empower women and the infrastructure development that reduces the burden on women (especially the distance traveled to carry water) to enable their full participation in water decision-making processes. Ensure that Gender Impact Assessments and corrective measures are mandatory for all water projects.
<li>Support regional and local initiatives to protect and restore the hydrological functioning of ecosystems for the benefit of local and indigenous communities, downstream communities and biodiversity, and fund programmes of action that work to sustain these through public involvement and integrated water resource management.
<li>Encourage urban water supply and sanitation planning to be in compliance with the integrated water resource management plans for the region (especially the watershed from which the water is drawn) and take into account the needs of people and freshwater ecosystems including the wildlife that depend on them. 
<li>Address the means by which water commons can be maintained and, as part of this, recognize the need for financial mitigation, global funding (e.g. GEF) or other systems through which communities might be assisted in their trusteeship of this invaluable resource.
</ul>
<p>May 28, 2002</p>