Water or War
This week Kyoto hosts the third World Water Forum, the largest
one yet. More than 8,000 participants from all over the world
have landed in Japan's historical capital to solve the world's
water problems.
With war in Iraq looming on the horizon French President Chirac
decided to stay at home, but he did deliver a video-taped speech
for the opening ceremony on March 16. The figures on water are
"terrible" said a grave Chirac. "Will the twenty-first
century," he asked the assembled experts, "be a time
of tension and water wars? Or will it be a time of international
solidarity and greater justice? The answer depends on our wisdom
and our commitment."