Opening Addressst

1 Asia-Pacific Water Summit

Yoshiro Morist

Chair of the Steering Committee of the 1 Asia-Pacific Water Summit
President of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum
Former Prime Minister of Japan

Good Morning, honoured guests, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure and honour for me to address you at the opening of the 1st Asia-PacificWater Summit. I would like to express my profound gratitude to His Imperial Highness theCrown Prince of Japan, and His Royal Highness Prince Willem Alexander of The
Netherlands, chairman of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water andSanitation, for attending. I would also like to thank President Emomali Rahmon of theRepublic of Tajikistan; President Tommy Remengesau Jr. of the Republic of Palau;
President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati; President Ludwig Scotty of the Republic ofNauru; President Emmanuel Mori of the Federated States of Micronesia; Prime Minister
Mititaiagimene Young Vivian of Niue; Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia of Tuvalu; Prime Minister
Kinzang Dorji of the Kingdom of Bhutan; Vice Prime Minister Dosbol Nur ulu of the Kyrgyz
Republic.Thank you as well to

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is here on behalf ofJapan, the host country.

I am also grateful to all the people involved, for their efforts and cooperation towards thesuccess of the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit. I would like to express my sincere thanks tothe conveners of the sessions, organizers of the open events held in Oita and many otherplaces across Japan, members of the Oita Committee of the 1st APWS, concerned local
governments, NGOs, and members of the public.

The 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit is a historic event, dedicated exclusively to the resolutionof water issues. This summit, focusing on the theme “Water Security: Leadership andCommitment”, is expected to provide a good opportunity for governments and other nationalleaders to raise the awareness of water issues and share a determination to take concrete
actions towards the resolution of water issues.

Water problems in the Asia-Pacific region are severe. This region is home to 3.7 billion

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have no access to safe drinking water, and half of the population (1.9 billion) has no accessto sanitation facilities. We are faced with a critical situation. In addition, we have sufferedtremendous losses caused by water-related disasters. Eighty percent of worldwide deaths
resulting from water-related disasters have occurred in this region.

In areas where there is no access to safe drinking water, women and children are forced tospend hours collecting water, wasting precious time which could be used for education andsocial activities. In places where there is no adequate sanitation, people are susceptible toepidemics and other health problems. In places vulnerable to water-related disasters,
people tend to lose their desire to work, hampering economic development. With regard to
infectious diseases, an area in which I have been involved for a long time, babies who arehealthy at birth later contract HIV from breast milk due to the lack of safe drinking waterrequired to prepare baby formula.

In areas of rapidly growing economies and populations, it is necessary to allocate limited
water resources appropriately between agriculture, industry, households, environment users,and other sectors. Needless to say, it is critical to secure close coordination of the use ofinternational rivers among riparian countries. In this context, water is a key factor that affects
not only local stakeholders but also the survival of the countries themselves. Therefore,
national leaders must be in the forefront of water-related initiatives.

In order to focus our discussions during the preparatory meetings for the summit, water
issues in this region have been classified into three priority themes: water financing andcapacity building; water-related disaster management; and water for development andecosystems. The outcomes of the discussions will be presented at sessions devoted toworking out concrete initiatives.

In recent years, climate change has sparked great controversy across the world. Its serious
impact will be revealed to us through water. While damage caused by water-related
disasters such as floods will increase, it is predicted that desertification and water shortages
will also become more serious. Intensive discussions will take place on climate change andwater in Asia and the Pacific region, especially on glacial melting and the breaking of glaciallakes in the Himalayas, as well as the problem of rising sea levels in the small Pacific islandstates. Now that we cannot avoid the negative impacts of climate change, our strategy must
be to focus on how to adapt to these impacts.

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The year 2008 has been declared as the International Year of Sanitation by the United
Nations. Among sanitation issues, toilets poses a particular challenge to human dignity. Inorder to save as many children suffering from water-borne diseases as possible, it will benecessary to discuss seriously the improvement and development of sanitation systems,
based on the new idea of human waste as a sustainable and recyclable resource.
The initiative of the Asia-Pacific Water Summit was first presented at the 4th World Water
Forum in March, 2006. Shortly after that, former Prime Minister of Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto
suddenly passed away. He had dedicated all his energies to the resolution of global water
issues and was also the founder of the summit.

I decided to carry on with Mr. Hashimoto’s strong determination to contribute to theresolution of global water issues. I have made the greatest possible effort to ensure thesuccess of the summit. I hope my knowledge and long experience in politics including as aprime minister will be of some help in the resolution of global water issues. I believe mymission is to become foster father of Mr. Hashimoto’s legacy

Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to government leaders and all those
who have traveled far to attend this summit. I trust these two days will yield valuable results,and I sincerely hope that we will be able to hand over this rich and beautiful planet to ourchildren by overcoming our serious water problems.

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