MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has urged for a “bolder vision” and “urgent action” to address Asia-Pacific region’s water-related issues, noting that developing countries such as the Philippines continue to experience challenges in ensuring people’s universal access to safe, affordable and accessible water.
Duterte stated in a video message during the heads of states and government meeting at the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Kumamoto City on Saturday that countries in Asia-Pacific and its partners must forge “a strong alliance” to solve water woes in the region.
“Excellencies, now is the time for bolder vision and urgent action. We need to decide wisely for ourselves and for future generations,” Duterte said.
Citing the Philippines as an example, he stated that despite the country’s abundance of water, ensuring an adequate supply of drinking water remains an “enormous challenge”.
“This requires an urgent sense of community action in the region, an integrated and coherent policy and the resolve to create opportunities for investment and collaboration for technological solutions,” he told the participants of the water summit.
He recommended various other approach to solve challenges like creating a robust regime for sustainable water management, using the best available science in water resource generation and climate resilient infrastructure, and securing sustainable forest protection and watershed management.
He stated that regional experts for technology development and transfer should also collaborate, and countries must promote transboundary benefits for the common people’s development towards 2050 and beyond.
Solutions to water-related issues, he said, must come from government and non-government stakeholders alike.
According to Duterte, access to water and its related services is rightly considered a basic human right, since it is a resource so vital for humans and ecosystems for survival and sustenance.
Meanwhile, Duterte lauded the Japanese government for the continued initiative in successfully organizing the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit.
Introducing the President during the leaders’ meeting, Climate Change Commission Secretary Robert E. A. Borje said central to the Philippines’s position in climate change mitigation and adaptation is climate justice.
“To the least responsible, to those with the least resources, to those most exposed, we need to do more,” Borje said.
Borje likewise voiced the Philippines’ solidarity with all nations that have been impacted by water-related disasters as a result of climate change drivers.
In his Talk to the People program last week, Duterte said developed countries must compensate developing nations suffering from the impacts of climate change.
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