Commission on Sustainable Development, (CSD12)
New York/Nairobi, 20 April, 2004: The12th Session of
the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was launched on 19 April
2004 with the international community calling for renewed commitment to
the Millennium Development Goals, especially those specifically concerned
with water, sanitation and human settlements.
With an estimated 1.5 billion people living without access to safe drinking
water and about 2.5 billion living without access to adequate sanitation,
in his opening address, the Chairman of CSD, the Norwegian Minister for
Environment, H.E. Mr. Borge Brende reminded the delegates that there was
an urgent need to implement the Millennium Development Goals.
Only half of the developing countries are on track towards meeting the
global target of halving the number of poor people without clean water
and only about one third of the developing countries are on track in the
field of sanitation. The chairman therefore emphasized that CSD faced
the daunting challenge of keeping up the political momentum and catalyzing
action to ensure progress especially as the numbers of people living in
slums and squatter settlements was set to double within the next few decades.
Concerned about the numbers of people suffering from no access to clean
water or adequate sanitation, His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange
called for a doubling of investment in the water and sanitation sectors.
If the targets are to be met, there would also have to be a quantum leap
in the capacity building of managerial and professional personnel in the
developing world.
Mr. Jose Antonio Ocampo Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social
Affairs emphasized that with rapid urbanization even the target of improving
the lives of 100 million slum dwellers represented a modest progress and
called for more commitment.
Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, welcomed the fact
that CSD had chosen to focus on water, sanitation and human settlements
as this provided a global spring board for local action. She stated that
this review session provided an important opportunity to catalyze action
at the local level and she committed UN-HABITAT to play its role in this
process. “The struggle for achieving the MDGs for water and sanitation
will have to be waged in cities and towns and villages. It is at this
level where actions can be coordinated and managed. It is at this level
that policy initiatives become an operational reality and an eminently
political affair. It is here that local actions must and can deliver global
goals.”
Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UNEP, committed his agency
to taking its responsibility to provide the environmental dimension of
sustainable development. He pointed out that up to one third of the world’s
population will soon suffer from chronic water shortages and that this
was not just about the crisis of availability by a crisis of investment
and management.
Mr. Zephrin Diabre, of UNDP, also committed his organization to play its
part by focusing on helping countries with capacity building and technical
assistance in the area of water and sanitation and human settlements.
The 12th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, being
held at UN Headquarters, in New York, from 14-30 April, is the first review
session under the Commissions new Implementation Cycle. The first three
days of the session served as the preparatory meeting for the ten year
review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States. From 19- 30 April, CSD will focus its
implementation cycle on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements in order
to emphasize the sense of urgency that the international community ascribes
to these issues. During this important event, UN-HABITAT is presenting
a number of different events to highlight the problems of the urban poor.
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