Introductive address by Michel Paoletti

Introductive address by Michel Paoletti,
Chair, overseas group, Economic and Social Council, Paris
Secretay General FPPECC

PECC Bora Bora seminar, 13th of november 2007

How could I say more than, as a member of our polynesian committee, what has just said our chairman and do anything else than join him , very warmly, in his welcome to you all ? So, it was not that much in my PECC capacity that I was invited to say some words at the beginning of our seminar. It was because, as a member of the Economic and Social Council of France, I was requested to express the interesting convergence of thoughts between the PECC and our organisation.

First of all, both organisations are based on the idea that there is a need for reflexion and action beyond the political sphere, albeit in liaison with. Understanding between different groups, social classes or countries, is sometimes very simply reached by the sheer exchange of views of people looking more for sharing knowledge than power. What better example than PECC, which can rightly boast to be the instigator of APEC?

The second point is that we are presently working on the same fundamental subject. Our council issued an advice to the government in 2000 and started a new research this year on a different approach: “economic activities in relation with water”. Similarly, in 2003, the economic, social and cultural council of french polynesia, and in 2006, the regional council of new caledonia, expressed their views on the question. I hope that our work here will be an opportunity for more exchanges, and I have already a meeting with the “rapporteure” in Paris set in a fortnight.

Our focus to-day, and during our three days together, is about islands and coastal regions. I think that this is precisely where we can bring some added value to the general issue. Our environment, around here, is mainly water, but salted, the one from which and to which the cycle starts and finishes, without necessarily giving us the amount of fresh water that we need. The world has thousands of islands in all the oceans, sharing similar problems. And here in Bora Bora, we shall see what has been done to deal with water scarcity and to protect the precious environment of the island, by its Mayor. I think that you will find the visit extremely interesting and challenging. That is the reason why in Sydney, last may, during the PECC general assembly, it was decided to come to Bora Bora, as a “showcase” for dicussion, offering also a beautiful setting.

Let us be inspired by it!

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PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COUNCIL

PECC INTERNATIONAL PROJECT
2007-2009
Issues related to water management, in Island Territories,
Coastal Regions and Isolated Communities.

In cooperation with the World Water Council

The BORA-BORA seminar
Bora -Bora, French Polynesia
13 -15 November 2007


I Background:

At its April 2007 session in Sydney, the PECC Standing Committee, upon a proposal by France and its Pacific Territories, agreed to launch a PECC International Project on “issues related to water management in Island territories, coastal regions and isolated communities”. This project seconded by the World Water Council has immediately received a large support by member economies many of them having extended coastal territories and being confronted at different levels with issues related to water management, water quality or water scarcity.

At the global level, several questions arise from the combined effects of severe draught periods associated to climate change, uneven availability worldwide of water resources often associated with a downgrading of the quality of the resource. Water availability relies not only on the quantity of resource available but also of its quality to best fit the demand for human consumption. The current situation is critical in selected regions of the world, because the resource available cannot fit the needs both in quantity and/or quality.

The growing demand for water has become one of the most pregnant environmental issues in the PECC economies today. While climate change may be a major factor in limiting access to natural sources of water, water related crisis demand attention. These issues may create conflicts within local populations and between neighbouring economies, raising questions about rights of access to water, its appropriate cost, and priorities for its use.

Accordingly, all users (private, industrial, agricultural...) have to move towards a better use of the resource; they may have to change their habits to move towards more efficient and more secured water consumption. It is necessary to protect the resource and to look forward maintaining it at a sufficient level, by developing and making acceptable by users new technologies such as the reuse of water for agricultural and even domestic use, by strengthening the use of existing but insufficiently developed technologies such as rainwater harvesting, desalination, and by developing sound environmental practices.

Several international and regional organizations have started to cooperate on water management with PECC on the occasion of the Bora Bora seminar : the World Water Forum, the UNDP, the SOPAC (Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission) that is in charge of the coordination of regional and local water projects in the Pacific region in liaison with regional and institutional lenders such as the ADB and the AFD (Agence Française de Développement).

The Asia Pacific Water Forum (the Osaka forum), a subset of Asia/Pacific economies which plays an important role in the Pacific region in stimulating debates and discussions on water related issues, will devote a special session to water management in small islands during it annual meeting on 3,4 December 2007. Several participants in the Bora Bora seminar are invited to participate and to share their conclusions.

For all these organisations, an appropriate management of water in islands and coastal regions, interactions between fresh and salt water, preservation of water quality… are issues that are considered more and more important.


II Objective:

The purpose of this three years PECC international project is threefold:

1) Firstly, the sharing of information about the best management of clean water in island territories, coastal regions and isolated communities. Water shortage associated to the potentially negative planned effects of climate change, and its bearing on the management of the resource: identify best practices to reduce water consumption both at the individual level and at the industry/agriculture one and make best use of the cubic meter of water distributed, in particular in water stressed or water scarce regions. A large number of territories in the Asia/Pacific region already suffer from a severe water shortage; similarly, in many countries worldwide the present pace of water consumption does not permit a satisfactory timely refill of the groundwater reserve.

2) Second, the acknowledgement that water is a scarce resource and that efforts have to be made in the field of the research and development of new technologies such as:
- A more extensive use of rainwater harvesting associated with the development of efficient storage facilities at the private and public levels;
- Wastewater recycling associated with an increase in the reuse of water;
- The examination of competing desalination practices;
- The development of sound and sustainable technologies at a reasonable cost that can be met by local users with limited maintenance efforts in islands territories and isolated areas;
- The use of renewable energies such as wind, solar, wave, bio fuels when developing new water treatment plants.

3) Third, to develop a new governance in the use of water:
- Make best efforts to develop a body of common practices to guarantee the availability of the resource and its quality both for individual and industry/agriculture use, in line with the existing “Guidelines for water resources development cooperation towards sustainable water resources management” set up by the European Commission.
- Avoid potential conflict that could arise within local populations or between economies, raising questions about rights of access to water, its appropriate cost and priorities for its use (both from an economic and legal point of view).


III Structure of the project: the Bora-Bora seminar and follow up:

With a view to explore these issues and make proposals to bring forwards adapted answers, PECC in cooperation with the World Water Council and in preparation for the Fifth World Water Forum to be held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2009, has organized a first seminar in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, 15-17 November 2007.
- A second seminar, dedicated to the use of water in the mining sector will be organized in the Spring of 2008 in Noumea, New Caledonia.
- The third seminar will take place in the fall of 2008

This PECC International project will conclude with the publication of a Report to the PECC Standing committee in the Spring of 2009, in Washington DC for endorsement. The Report, an added value to the ongoing multilateral initiatives in the field, will therefore be transmitted as a PECC contribution to the work of the Fifth world Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, 16-22 March 2009.

The Bora Bora seminar gathered 40 high level experts from international organisations and public and private entities from Australia, Chile, China, FPTPECC (France, French Polynesia, French Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna Islands), Japan, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, United States which have contributed to a very stimulating discussion to start with this three years programme.

The quality of the presentations made and the conclusions derived from the panels discussions during the Bora Bora seminar have demonstrated that the work initiated by PECC as an international PECC project with the support of the World Water Council on water management is very timely.

This first seminar has contributed to identify specific issues and has proposed avenues for future work namely in relation with the use of water in the mining industry and in identifying measures to protect the resource and avenues for developing new technologies and sound environmental practices.

Five main proposals with regard to water management in isolated and island territories have emerged from the discussion:

1) An integrated management of the resource with a better awareness is needed: some entire regions are off tracks, therefore special care is requested for isolated and islands territories. Islands and pacific islands countries are not so different from other economies in that clean water is essential to human existence and a major requirement in agriculture and industry production systems. But the ability of these islands is constraint by the small size, fragility, vulnerability and limited human and financial resource base. In the meantime, the Pacific region is impacted by climate change and potential natural disasters that may have the most severe effects on small, isolated economies.

2) Need for a better governance: water crisis is a deficiency of water governance.
-Water management deserves bringing together our forces to give an adapted response to water shortage and water quality. There are rights and interests linked to cultural and traditional community structures, true partnership by all stakeholders must prevail. There is a need for institutional perimeters of solidarity: geographical or social, or functional, or economic and to combine them whenever possible.
- A good water policy cannot be effective without a clarification of responsibilities between public authorities, service operators and financing organisations. Good governance requires formalizing the rights and duties between the stakeholders.
- Look for the development of public/private partnerships for a better management of water. Necessity to built trust between stakeholders to the Public/Private/Partnerships Process; as mentioned in the Guidelines for Effective Public Private Partnership published by PECC in 2007, trust is the key word. No water users can be mobilized to save a scarce resource without trust. No funding to develop alternative water resources such as desalination or reuse can be mobilized without trust. Trust means a clear sharing of roles between partners involved (local authorities, contractors, lenders).
- Defining the right level of governance, and eventually creating local water agencies or water committees with a subsidiary power as regard to global and common rules and principles.

3) Look for possible responses to issues arising from conflict against water use in isolated areas:
- Look forward to guarantying a safe access to clean water is a paramount; competition between users is increasing in intensity, conflicts may arise between operators and users, between public entities and private operators, between geographical, economic, or social category of users.
- Water is a source of human interdependence; water is a shared resource serving multiple constituencies (agriculture, industry, households); accordingly there are needs for increased consultation between stakeholders before a decision in the field of water management is taken, for capacity building among stakeholders to the water management.
- Building the necessary legal framework: as no specific mode of resolution of conflicts over water prevails, the best way to solve potential conflict is to prevent it by the contract, by the rules, by a strong regulation, by adequate modes of resolution of disputes i.e. by offering alternative procedure for conflicts resolution between users.
- Conceive and sign a framework agreement for water management in Islands territories, costal regions and isolated communities.

4) Avenues for limiting water scarcity and promoting access to clean water,
How to better use a scarce resource, how to control over water use/waste of water?
- Technical approaches have been identified with regard to their respective cost and efficiency: desalination practices (alternate technologies, operating /maintenance costs, cost/size of operation), the reuse of water for industry and possibly for private use under condition of acceptance by private users (water is far too precious to be used only once before returning to nature), rainwater harvesting and identification of conditions for guarantying clean water for private and public use. Developing sanitation: 2008 is the year of sanitation. The lack of sanitation will lead to increased scarcity and tension. “Sanitary bombs" as noted by Loïc Fauchon may strike either cities or rural communities. Identifying the possibility for water import from regions with high water availability to water stressed regions.
- Pricing policies have been identified as a way for limiting water scarcity: setting a differential pricing policy among users ie by setting a lower price for private consumers and having hotels/industry/agriculture paying a higher price, setting seasonal prices to keep the demand lower during dry/water stress seasons, timely limitation of access to water. Pricing policies need to better reflect the scarcity value of water and discourage depletion of groundwater.

5) Reach all consumers
- Long distances between users, steep and rugged landscape, isolated areas and islands territories make more difficult the reach of end users.
- How to reach people potentially affected by water shortage due to climate change and natural disasters.

Upon the invitation of the World Water Forum, PECC will further develop its research work in the field of water management in islands territories and isolated communities in cooperation with international and regional agencies such as the UNDP, the ADB, SOPAC and AFD and the East West Center.

Programme of the seminar, contributions and list of participants are attached

For additional information please contact the FPTPEC secretariat
Vice Chair, Professor Jean Luc Le Bideau : lebideaujeanluc@aol.com
Executive Director, Ambassador Jacques Le Blanc : jacques.leblanc@outre-mer.gouv.fr

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