Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander is currently spending three days in Japan, where he is doing his duty as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on water and sanitation, a cause the Crown Prince is very active in.
REUTERS/Imperial Household Agency of Japan/Handout
He arrived Monday and attended the Asahi Environmental Forum. Later in the evening, Willem Alexander met with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko for dinner at the Imperial Palace.
At the Forum, the Crown Prince gave a keynote speech about the need for clean water and proper sanitation in developing countries.
“Water is life. Our life,” he said. “Water plays a vital role in almost every aspect of life. Our economy; our food; our safety; our health; our nature; our living environment; our culture. Water – or a shortage of it – is a decisive factor in all of them.”
“Nowadays, we take it all for granted: dry feet, clean water from the tap, being able to move around freely, and having enough food at affordable prices. But you only have to open a newspaper, or switch on the television to see the reality.
“This summer, millions of people in Pakistan lost their homes in devastating floods. Nearly 2,000 people were killed. The impact of the disaster is immense. Harvests have failed. Farmland is useless. Roads and railway lines have been destroyed. Schools and hospitals have been swept away. Infectious diseases are rife. There is no drinking water. It will take a very long time for the people in the stricken areas to get their lives back in order.
“The reverse happened in Russia this summer, with the worst drought in many years. Twenty per cent of the wheat harvest failed and devastating forest fires polluted the air in Moscow.
“We need to take account of changing weather patterns. Far more rain falling in some places, and far less in others. That applies to Japan and the Netherlands as much as to Pakistan and Russia.”
Willem Alexander then mentioned integrated water resources management.
“We have to link water to spatial planning, economic policy, agriculture, health and disaster prevention. We also have to join hands across national borders. The impact of climate change on the world’s shared freshwater resources makes the need for viable transboundary management instruments even more pressing.
“The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, COP 15, focused attention on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential that we do so. But even if we manage to make crystal-clear agreements on that issue, we will still have to adapt to the demands water places on us. Water is after all the primary medium through which climate change influences Earth’s ecosystems and thus the livelihood and well-being of societies.”
Willem Alexander then highlighted the devastation of poor drinking water and sanitation in Third World countries.
“2.5 billion people still have no access to these basic facilities. The same people we expect to be working on their development – to be sending their children to school, and to be feeling responsible for the future of their country.
“But how can you work and learn properly without enough clean water, without even a toilet? Would you send your children to a school that had no toilets? 440 million school days are lost each year through illness caused by poor hygiene. Poor sanitation costs sub-Saharan Africa more money than all the development aid and debt relief going into the region put together.”
“Much has been achieved in the past ten years,” the Crown Prince said, switching to a more positive note.
“Figures from UNICEF and the World Health Organisation show that nearly 1.5 billion people have acquired drinking water from an improved source since 1990. We will very probably achieve the MDG [Millenium Development Goals] target for drinking water by 2015. I would ask all the sceptics who don’t believe in the power of international agreements to consider this enormous leap forward. At the same time, I must also point out that water quality is still an issue that warrants far more attention. If we supply people with water, it must of course be clean and safe to drink.
“Around 1.3 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990. That is very impressive. But even at this rate we will not achieve the MDG target. We could give up, and decide that it was simply not to be. But there are still five years to go. We can make a final sprint. We can achieve the target, but only if we give it everything we’ve got.”
With that, Willem Alexander closed his speech. “I have told you about water, my great passion: water that is all around us, the source of life, food, growth, development and health.
“Let us treat it accordingly. By including it in all our plans. By adapting to the demands it makes. By giving it a prominent place on the agenda at Cancún.”
To read more of his speech, click here
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