Expo Zaragoza 2008: pavilions, shows and…controversy
Everyone coming to the expo knows about the pavilions, the shows (will Bob Dylan come and sing?) but few know about the Water tribune. What is that?
The Water Tribune is the vehicle to debate and, why not, to create a hard rain of controversy wikth different points of view on water and sustainable development….
 The programme was presented today in Madrid, just a few days ahead of the world water day next 22nd March. In essence, 221 conferences, 9 thematic weeks, short film festival and all kind of personalities such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Rigoberta Menchu or Paulo Coelho to mention a few…
World (further) thinking on Water and Sustainable Development around the Expo Zaragoza 2008 will have a new text (which organisers of the Tribune would like to become a worldwide reference) with the Zaragoza charter and a new (Water and Future) Foundation with aims to become a multi-disciplinary advisory office coordinated with the Secretariat of the United Nations Decade of Water (Zaragoza 2005-2015)Â which no doubt will contribute to raise the global attention and political momentum in favour of the water and sanitation agenda.
But what is exactly expected from this rather political document, the so-called Zaragoza Charter? So far, as mentioned by the director of the Water Tribune, Eduardo Mestre “no agreements have been reached in any of the charters that have existed on water over the last eight or ten years, and every time an attempt has been made to sign an epistle of this kind, it has failed”. So if I understand it correctly, as we say in Spanish: “del dicho al hecho hay un gran trecho” (from saying to doing…).
The time is right. International Alert has identified 46 countries, home to 2.7 billion people, where climate change and water-related crises create a high risk of violent conflict. This is more or less half of the world population!
Spain might be the right place for debate & agreements as some of the problems faced here (with huge rainfall variations across Spain) might be similar to problems in other regions. Solutions too. As is the case of Zaragoza which consumes 100 litres per inhanbitant per day. Just by comparison, Los Angeles 400 Litres…. Rwanda has an average water consumption of 10 litres per person per day…many factors behind these differences but the work of Zaragoza and its civil society organisations is paying back…see for example this google map where institutiosn, etc can give visibility to their “sound water management” compromises…
 Pd. For those who want to know more about the water tribune just follow the link
Añadir a Digg
menéame
8 de April, 2008 - 5:55 pm
[...] Expo Zaragoza 2008: pavilions, shows and…controversy [...]
2 de February, 2009 - 8:28 am
I love the comparisons you have made. Absolutly true.
3 de February, 2009 - 12:06 am
I like the comparisons you have made. Absolutly true.
4 de February, 2009 - 2:22 am
Purcshase Zagam
4 de February, 2009 - 4:12 pm
Purcshase, order, buy Asendin