Groundwater Governance: A global Framework for Action
4th Regional Consultation: Asia and the Pacific Region
3-5 Dec 2012,
Inst of Hydrogeology & Environmental Geology (IHEG)
OPENING REMARKS
Hongpeng Liu
Chief, Energy Security and Water Resources Section,
Environment and Development Division, ESCAP
Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to attend this 4th Consultation of the project
Groundwater Governance: A Global Framework for Action, which is focusing on
the Asia and the Pacific Region. I would like to thank the organisers for inviting
ESCAP to this event.
Water continues to be one of the drivers of economic growth and social activities.
With the rapid urbanization and population growth, competition for all water
related services has increased multi-folds, with ever increasing of diverse
economic activities, including the production of energy, both conventional and
alternative clean energy and the production of food and services of sanitation.
More and more, countries are looking at the groundwater sources as key to
support economic and social development.
Groundwater, being part of the water continuum and usually hidden from
vision, is apt to be less attention attached. In particular in the Asia-Pacific region,
it is also subject to the impacts of rapid economic growth and urbanization,
rendering it vulnerable to pollution, excessive extraction and depletion, which
can result in other spill over impacts yet to be understood. The impacts of climate
change on water resources will further add to the complexities of its
management. So it is more than timely that we should now focus on
groundwater governance.
ESCAP being the UN Regional Commission for Asia and the Pacific, continues to
monitor development of cross cutting issues of natural resources such as energy
and water. ESCAP provides the official platform for policy dialogues to 62
members and associate members. With a geographical scope that stretches from
Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the
Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south, is the most
comprehensive of the United Nations five regional commissions.
ESCAP focuses on issues that are most effectively addressed through regional
cooperation and is of interest to all member countries or a group of member
countries; issues that will benefit from regional or multi-country involvement;
issues that are trans-boundary in nature and issues that are sensitive or emerging
and requiring further advocacy and negotiation
In the outcome document of Rio+20 – The future we want, regional and subregional organisations, such as ESCAP and our sub-regional offices, are required
to play an increasingly significant role in promoting a balanced integration of the
economic, social and environment dimensions of sustainable development in our
respective capacities to support member countries. These include supporting
changes in unsustainable ways and promoting sustainable patterns of
consumption and production, and protecting and managing the natural resource
base economic and social development as overarching objectives, Providing
support, where necessary, in managing the governance of ground water is
inclusive of this initiative.
ESCAP continue to work in the areas which we have built and will build our
expertise, particularly new emerging issues and cross-cutting issues such as
groundwater governance, water-food and energy nexus, working with our
traditional partners, such as members of UN-Water and international financing
institutions, as well as building new networks with agencies having common
interest, both at global, regional and national levels. We are very interested in
supporting this groundwater governance initiative, as we have seen how
unregulated use of groundwater can have serious impacts on the health,
economic development and environment sustainability of the region.
In concluding, I would like to thank again our host – The Ministry of Land and
Resources of the Peoples Republic of China, UNESCO, GEF, FAO and the World
Bank. I wish you every success for the deliberations at this meeting and the
implementation of the initiatives for the Groundwater Governance in the AsiaPacific region.
Thank you