联合国开发署驻华代表、联合国驻华机构总协调员马和励
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to attend 3rd China International Forum on Environment and Development and have the honor of delivering an opening speech on behalf of UNDP and the UN system in China. The theme of this forum is “Water: lifeline for China’s Sustainable Development in 21st Century-Urgency for Preventing Water Pollution”, which is a crucial and timely topic. As the representative of the United Nations I am inspired to see so many high level representatives from varies government departments, organizations and agencies joined together, and to see the great importance which the Government places on challenges regarding water and development.
The UN sponsored Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are intimately linked to the Xiaokang goals set by the Chinese government to achieve an overall Well-Off Society by 2020. Clean and adequate water is crucial to achieving development goals.However it is estimated that over 300 million rural Chinese residents still have low access to safe drinking water, facing problems of shortage as well as severe contamination. Pollution of water sources is widespread and increasingly serious. Worldwide there are now more than a billion people with no access to enough clean water for drinking and over 2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation. Increasing demands by industrial and urban users and increasing levels of pollution are creating serious shortages of clean and adequate water supplies for countries around the world.
"Declaring water a human right clearly does not mean that the water crisis will be resolved in short order. Nor does a rights framework provide automatic answers to difficult policy questions about pricing, investment and service delivery. However, right regimes represent a powerful moral claim.
I would also like to take the opportunity addressing a few words of water security and climate change. Exacerbating water security challenges are the emerging consequences of global climate change. Climate change is expected to bring significant changes to local land and water use regimes over the next decades in China, including altered predictability of water seasonality as rainfall pattern shift and the rate of melting escalates in the Himalaya. Glacial area has reduced by 20% over the past century, bringing risks and uncertainty for the predictability of water flows and the nature of long-term development policies in western China.
As highlighted in China’s 1st National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, few aspects of development will be immune from the emerging impacts of climate change in China. Rising temperatures and melting trends could exacerbate water security and cause drops in agricultural output in the long-term. The changing water flows could threaten the Yantze and Yellow rivers which form the basis for much of China’s economic growth and social development.
Based on the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations in China is working closely with the Chinese government and institutions to provide assistance to government, business and civil society to integrate Adaptation Policy Frameworks into local development policies and actions.
Your Excellencies, colleagues, friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In defining sustainable development, we need to cope with the increasing challenges on sustainable development, with special attention to water issues. From the perspective of sustainable water governance, one has to decide what actions need most attention and how we should make the joint efforts on preventing water pollution.
UN China is proud to be working with China to improve water quality. Currently, UNDP joints its efforts with Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and Ministry of Commerce with a project entitled ”Improved Water Resources Management and Drinking Water Safety in Rural Regions of China”. The project is aimed to support government efforts to improve water resources management and drinking water safety in rural regions of China. Efforts will be made to build up policy mechanisms to support improved water resources management and drinking water safety. A series of sound water resources management, drinking water safety and environmental protection technologies will be offered in the project. The project will be demonstrated in Sichuan province, Heilongjiang province and Tarim river basin in Xinjiang autonomous region.
The project will include international best practice by integrating the expertise of World Health Organization, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other UN agencies.
I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this distinguished audience. Best wishes for a successful and productive Forum.
