The aim of the magazine "World Water Watch" is not only to inform you about what has affected the freshwater environment in the past but also to establish a fund that will contribute to its care in the future. World Water Watch aims to make a donation each year to a project that will help to solve some of the problems raised in the questions that follow. Details of each chosen project will be published in the magazine. Water is not only a natural resource: it is also an economic and social entity. How can a balance between these last two factors be achieved ? How should water be used to eradicate poverty ? What are the rights of individuals to have access to water ? How should we value, charge for, and allocate water among all its users - including ecosystems ?
The World Charter on Water for Nature says that resources "shall be managed to achieve and maintain optimal sustainable productivity, but not in such a way as to endanger the integrity of those other ecosystems with which they co-exist". Is this principle to be applied differently in different countries and regions at varying stages of development ? Are some regions overconsuming at the expense of others ? Should managing change in our environment continue to take precedence over changing human behaviour ? Balancing supply and demand means more risk in some cases than others. Should we, for example, use and deplete fossil water or introduce genetically modified species of plants in a place where water is still being wasted ? This issue leads naturally to the next - sovereignty over water. Should water belong to the nation within whose frontiers the rain falls ? Should upstream users be able to use whatever water they want without concern for those downstream ? There are no rules to say how water should be shared. Perhaps an evolutionary concept of water sovereignty is needed.
Klaus Pahlich
director WFWF (World Freshwater Fund)