Two billion still without clean water, UN warns

Ministers, scientists and financiers from around the globe began a week of meetings yesterday to plan how to manage the world's water resources without destroying the environment.

Discussions on the opening day of the World Water Forum, a triennial conference, focused on determining what nations can do on their own to achieve the goal set by the United Nations of halving the number of people without access to water for nourishment and hygiene by 2015.

The forum brings together more than 10,000 delegates from 165 countries in the Japanese cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Shiga, and comes just six months after nations agreed to the ambitious targets at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Many of the policy proposals this week are expected to build on projects that have been under way since a 2000 water forum at The Hague.

But progress has been slow. In a 600-page report released just over a week ago, the UN said that hardly any of the short-term targets had been met. About 2 billion people are without clean water and toilets.

Environmentalists critical of the forum say policy solutions too often call for huge dams and hydroelectric power facilities that threaten local ecosystems and ignore tiny communities in poor countries that need the assistance the most.

To solve the problems, nations need to add another £63bn to the roughly £50bn spent a year on water issues, experts say. None of the delegates is expected to announce increased spending for water, organisers say. (AP)