About 30,000 people are expected to attend this gigantic water gathering. The 5th World Water Forum is the biggest and has the highest attendance numbers of any meeting held in İstanbul since the Habitat II conference.Unlike other natural resources, water is a vital element for life. In addition to its importance in providing the vital needs of human beings, water also has economic, social and environmental value. Due to global warming, issues such as management of water resources, relations between water and the environment, cross-border water resources, provision of safe water and prevention of drought have become top agenda items in many countries. Thus, water is no longer just a topic for engineering work, but has become a main concern for economies, development, politics, the environment and social sciences. Thus, a number of novel concepts have emerged between the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, and world water forums were organized.
The first World Water Forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1997 and was attended by 10,000 participants. The second meeting was held in The Hague in the Netherlands in 2000. Unlike the Mar del Plata and Dublin conferences held under the auspices of the UN, which were restricted to government representatives and specialists, the forum attracted large groups of people concerned with water management from developing and developed countries. The Hague meeting criticized the emphasis on the economic value of water and promoted discussion of the social, environmental and cultural aspects of water.
Some 24,000 people, including 130 ministers, attended the third meeting held in Kyoto, Japan, in 2003. In the Kyoto meeting, it was emphasized that climate change would affect underdeveloped countries most severely and that the strategies to be developed for adaptation to climate change must be merged with integrated water resource management. The forum also discussed water provision, collection and treatment of wastewater, preservation of water, nature and the environment, water and governance, agriculture, foodstuff and water relations, water and poverty and water and infrastructure finance. The fourth meeting was held in Mexico City in 2006. The meeting focused on water for development, healthy water provision for everyone, water for foodstuff and the environment and risk management. Failed attempts at privatization of water provision in cities in South American countries where socialist tendencies were stronger than neoliberal policies were intensely discussed at the Mexico City meeting.
The theme of the current forum is "Bridging Divides for Water." This main theme stresses the importance of ensuring cooperation for rational management of water resources among world countries beyond geographical barriers. Having a pyramid-shaped schedule, the İstanbul forum offers six main topics and 22 subtopics, such as global changes and risk management, developing millennium targets of human development, preservation and management of water resources with an emphasis on human and environmental needs, financing, training, knowledge and capacity development.
Groups who claim that water has been commercialized, too, are holding a meeting in İstanbul. Many anti-neoliberal groups, who claim that the World Water Forum excludes social movements and that its main purpose is to privatize Turkey's water resources, are organizing an alternative water forum at İstanbul Bilgi University between March 20 and 22, 2009. These groups, which oppose the privatization of water resources, maintain that water is a public good and that it is a human right to have clean, safe water. They point out that water is different from other commodities. On the other hand, the proponents of privatization of water resources put forward that public establishments for water provision do not operate efficiently. They add that due to the capital-intense quality of investments in the water sector, the private sector's involvement in this sector will make water provision easier and accessible to a greater number of people. In sum, the main agenda item for this week is water.
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