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<Forum on the Caspian, Aral and Dead Seas-Perspective
of Water Environmental Management and Politics>

<Symposium on the Aral Sea and The Surrounding Region
-Irrigated Agriculture and the Environment>

OPENING ADDRESS

Richard A. Meganck, Ph.D.
Director, International Environmental Technology Centre
United Nations Environmental Programme

Colleagues, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. Yesterday, my colleague, Dr. Habib El-Habr, read a brief opening statement on my behalf at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo session of this symposium. It is a distinct honor to be here with you today.

As I noted yesterday, UNEP is committed to and actively involved in all aspects of freshwater planning and management. It is a mandate of the Earth Summit, our own Governing Council and the General Assembly that this responsibility be reflected in our programme and budget documents. I mention this not to insinuate that we are overburdened or somehow looking for an "out", but rather to insist that we are only half of the equation. There is no way, literally, for UNEP to fulfill its mandate without the active collaboration of you - the scientists, planners and managers of, what many have said, to be the key to future progress and development - our planet's marine and freshwater resources.

You heard many startling figures and scenarios in the papers presented and discussed yesterday. Since 1960, the surface area of the Aral Sea reduced by nearly 50 percent, its volume by nearly 66 percent, its salinity trebling, etc. The negotiations required to agree to introduce northern European river water into the Caspian Sea in order to help stabilize water-level fluctuations. The situation that confronts planners to help stabilize water-levels and control excessive irrigation from the Dead Sea. Later today, you will hear the details of UNEP's efforts to bring an integrated approach to the ever more complex equation of water management.

The ILEC Survey of the State of the World's Lakes identifies six major management problems: eutrophication, water-level fluctuation, siltation, toxic substance contamination, acidification, and loss of biological diversity. At least three of these problems have contributed to the genesis of United Nations International Conventions: The Convention on Biological Diversity, the Basel Convention on the Movement of Hazardous Wastes, and the Climate Change Convention. Others on this list were recently addressed in Iceland at the meeting on land-based sources of pollution. This may also lead to a Convention with a number of protocols.

Even though our scientific and planning skills are, in theory, becoming more refined, the management of water promises to become more complex, requiring each of you to become in some fashion "politician". I might consider adding to the list of water management problems the lack of "political will" to act on scientific data. That is obviously a simplistic statement, but consider the potential of tens of dams in the Amazon system directly affecting several other nations, the complexity of managing international water basins, the interdependency of water quality and its use in a common sea such as the Mediterranean or Caribbean, fishing rights as evidenced by the recent discrepancy in interpretation of international law between Canada and the European Union, irrigation rights in the arid lands of the Middle East and Africa, etc.

All of these points lead me to believe that the issues being surfaced during this conference are cutting-edge, and perhaps in certain cases slightly ahead of the needs of managers and politicians, but only slightly. Therefore with collegial respect I state that it is incumbent on each and every one of you to put into practice the lessons that this symposium clearly demonstrates. If we are going to have anything worth managing, we must push the decision-makers to attract the large amounts of international financing required to address these large-scale management issues.

I have been reading the news reports about this massive iceberg that recently broke-off from the Antarctic ice-cap. The number of ideas of how to manage its movement and to what uses it might be put have been fascinating and at times entertaining. I particularly like the idea of an unnamed Sheik who wants to purchase it and bring it to his particular corner of the desert to create a large covered freshwater lake. Who owns it? If we could somehow transport it - intact to anyone of the regions we are focusing on in this symposium, we would solve the volume issue but undoubtedly create a multitude of other problems. It is a fascinating event however, and one that planners, perhaps half in-jest/half serious, have held up as a simplistic solution to localized freshwater dilemmas. We do not believe that jurisdictional constraints nor political differences should hinder regional cooperation aimed at better managing these areas, whether it comprise a national or regional water-commons. In fact the experience of UNEP in a number of politically sensitive areas proves that environmental concerns of a common nature have tended to transcend ideological or political differences. We specifically refer to the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the Persian Gulf Regions where the activities under their respective Action Plans continued even at the height of the Arab and Israeli conflict, the USA-Cuban tensions, or even during the Iran and Iraq war. As recently as two years ago it was politically unthinkable that Vietnam, Cambodia and China would be working together, but today they are all active members of the East Asia Seas Action Plan and working towards a common understanding in the management of the Mekong System.

UNEP also recognizes that these successes imply an enormous amount of work; more than it can conceivably accomplish with its limited resources.This is why I again return to the first point I made. UNEP depends on proactive working relationships with the institutions you represent in advancing the serious work you are outlining that must yet be accomplished. I wish you well in this endeavor and, on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, promise our continued support and collaboration.

Thank you.

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