Vízügyi Közlemények, 2004 (86. évfolyam)
3-4. füzet - Orlóci I.-Szesztay K.: Vízgazdálkodás a globalizálódó világban
Vízgazdálkodás a globalizálódó világban 475 In the World Water Forums and in studies dealing with the water management conditions of the Earth such factors are listed among the causes of water-crisis as those related to health, devastation of aquatic habitats and the decrease of utilisable water resources. The risk of noncompliance with the sustainability of water management stems, however, from deeper strata. Sciences of the economy specify the interconnecting role of water in the society and in nature as an ability to create externalities. The ever-stronger consequences of this ability of water urge the changes of paradigm of water management. Viewing Table 1 one should conclude that the forbidding of the use of land and water, thus basically affecting economic development, would have a very unfavourable impact on the wealth and quality of life of the population. In addition to this one would need much more and much better knowledge on the mechanisms of the processes of the propagation of impacts, if one wishes to control these processes. The solution of this problem extends far beyond the frames and tools of water management and the competence of the institutions of water management. Starting with the end of the 1960-ies it became more and more evident that there are two global processes, which act against the forming of a lastingly peaceful global system. One of this is the social-political tension of the contradictions of the life conditions of poor and rich countries. The other one is the rapid propagation of environmental crises that are formed by the limits of natural resources and from the obstacle of economic development. Member states of the United Nations Organisation convened the World Summits of Rio de Janeiro (1992) and Johannesburg (2002) in order to halt these unfavourable processes. Water is a key factor in the solution of both of these global problems. Water is a finite and vulnerable resource of the Earth, vital element of life and wealth, controlling factor of the weather and the related geochemical processes and it provides for the connection between living and nonliving beings and poor and rich people. The world water conferences (such as that of Budapest, in 1975 on the integrated development of river basins) and forums (such as the 3 r d World Water Forum held in Japan in 2003) were organised with the principles of joining the ideas of the world summits. On the Millennium Summit of the UN (2000) and on the World Conference on Sustainable Development of Johannesburg the following objectives were defined: - Increasing by 2015 the ratio of world population, which receives healthy drinking water, to 50% and Decreasing the ratio of the population not served by sewerage and sewage treatment to half (the global values of these ratios are shown in figures 4 and 5). Attention to the deepening of the water-crisis was called by the document "Future Image of Water" produced by the World Water Council, which was established in 1996. Later the documents of the 3 r d World Water Forum (2003) emphasised the multiple role of water and stated that the major cause of water crisis can be traced down to the deficiencies of the world economy and to the fragmented character of the systems of relevant institutions. It would be highly justifiable to make a "post-event" evaluation of the splitting the once unified Hungarian system of water management institutions into fragments. Namely, the presently existing set-type system of institutions that resulted from the applied rearrangement of the old system is not suitably applicable for creating a unified information system and neither for the creation of a community based participatory planning and decision-making procedure. Three strongly interrelated short-term trends have strengthened in the decade between the two world summits. These are the globalisation, the decentralisation and the participation of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in the determination of objectives. In the programme of Agenda 21 there is a deterministic recognition of the need for evaluating all processes of the environment and all the strategies aimed at the control of such processes in their whole geographic complexity. Decentralisation and the widened scope of institutional participation is manifested by the increasing recognition of the role of local governments, along with the need of the multiprofessional approach to the problems to be handled.
