Towards the 6^th World Water Forum — Cooperative Actions for Water Security

Dear Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues!

Let me welcome the conference participants on behalf of the public water associations, the South Caucasus countries working in the water resources protection and management.

Problems faced by the South Caucasus countries, are rather similar to the problems of Central Asian countries. In the first place it is theclimate change consequences, rapid demographic changes, increasing food prices, inadequate attention to water supply and sanitation, especially to sewage systems.

Solving these problems is a priority task for the countries of our region.

Considerable advantage of Central Asian countries is structures and mechanisms of regional cooperation around water which countries were able to create . Maybe they are not sufficiently mature and effective, but they exist and the way to water security is because of them shorter than in the Caucasus.

Even in the late 20th century it was believed that water is a renewable resource, and it will never disappear, but now, in the beginning 21 century fresh water began to disappear and it is believed that it is not able to recover and global climate change affects on fresh water ecosystems very strongly.

Today, everyone in the world should feel responsibility for the water.

On the one hand, a fair and reasonable access to water for everyone is an ethical, moral and legal rights. On the other hand, each of us is a water user, and must use water efficiently and carefully, protecting it from contamination.

I want to wish all of us - the conference participants - the successful work and harmony in a collaborative efforts to improve water management for sustainable development, as well as to find consensus on the mechanisms and tools that can be used in this process in the nearest future.