The Conference declared the 1980s to be the "UN International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade". The altruistic goal was to ensure all people in the world had access to adequate water supplies and sanitation within a decade.
Ten years later, the Brundtland Commission told the world that our approach to development was unsustainable--but it had little to say about water. Then, in 1992, the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, in its "Agenda for the 21st Century" (known as "Agenda 21"), addressed fresh water in chapter 18 of its report. In 1996, the World Water Council, a private think-tank, was formed. The founding members were Egypt's Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, the Canadian International Development Agency and the French transnational water corporation Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. Other organisations supporting the start-up of the World Water Council were: * International Water Resources Association (IWRA)
* Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo (CIHEAM- Bari)
* International Water Association (IWA)
* United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
* United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
* United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
* United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
* United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
* Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)
* World Bank (WB)
* World Conservation Union (IUCN)
* World Health Organization (WHO)
* World Meteorological Association (WMA)
The World Water Council set about developing its vision for our future: a comprehensive document, The Long Term Vision for Water, Life and Environment,7 better known by its subtitle, World Water Vision, Making Water Everybody's Business.
At a 1998 meeting held in Washington, DC, the World Water Council appointed a group of commissioners to turn the World Water Vision into reality. The membership of the World Water Commission, as it became known, reads like a who's who of the ruling elite. The high profile commissioners include: * Yolanda Kababadse, President, World Conservation Union * Jessica Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA
* Robert S. McNamara, Co-Chair, Global Coalition for Africa * Maurice Strong, Chair, Earth Council, member of Commission on Global Governance, and a chief adviser in charge of the UN reform process
* Wilfred Thalwitz, former Senior VP, World Bank * Jerome Mondo, Chair of the Supervisory Board, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux