European Water Forum
On Tuesday 25 January, the European Water Forum will be held in La Rochelle, the meeting place for all those committed to sustainable water resource management in Europe.
REGISTER AT http://www.forum-europeen-eau.org
Water management is a major issue of the 21st century. We drink it, we use it for agricultural irrigation, industry, energy production and nuclear power plant cooling, and we need it to ensure the preservation of aquatic and marine environments. Our survival, our health, a large part of our industrial economy, our food sovereignty and the restoration of ecosystems depend closely on its good quality, its quantity, its equitable sharing, its responsible management and its accessibility.
Overexploitation of this resource combined with the effects of climate change make us very vulnerable. Many conflicts over the use of water have emerged across Europe. Although the European Union has taken strong measures since the 1990s, the unawareness of the derogatory systems put in place by the Member States have prevented us from seriously preserving the resource, both in terms of quality and quantity, while contributing heavily to the degradation of the marine ecosystem, which is absolutely central to the fight against climate change and the achievement of food sovereignty.
Faced with this situation, at the initiative of MEP Benoît Biteau, the Greens/EFA group decided to take action and bring together the actors committed in Europe for a sustainable management of water resources. The speakers include the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkevičius, MEP Yannick Jadot, UN Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Italian trade unionist Aboubakar Soumahoro, MP Mathilde Panot, hydrologist Emma Haziza, MP Loïc Prud'homme, Spanish hydrogeologist José Maria Calaforra, MEP Marie Toussaint, activist Françoise Blandel, Italian political scientist and economist Riccardo Petrella, Lucile Richard and Julien Leguet for Bassines Nonmerci... And so many other French and European actors who defend water!
How can we move from a technocratic, authoritarian and commercial management of water to the democratic governance of a common good? How does the European Union ensure that the different uses of water coexist in a context of growing tensions linked to climate change? What place should aquatic environments have in 21st century water management? How to restore the ecological continuity of European waterways? ... These are all questions to which our speakers will provide answers and food for thought.
The programme will be dense: workshops in the morning and plenary sessions in the afternoon to address water in all its states and considering all the issues: drinkability, availability, access, preservation of environments, competition for irrigation and industry...
Don't miss this exceptional event and register at http://www.forum-europeen-eau.org . The plenary sessions (2.30 - 6 pm) will be broadcast live on this same website.
