Press Release

OPEC Fund observes World Day for Water

26/2006 March 22, 2006, Vienna, Austria
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Together with the international community, the OPEC Fund for International Development is observing World Day for Water (WWD). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will be coordinating events to observe the Day around the world, with this year’s theme focusing on “Water and Culture”.

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring March 22 as a day for devoting special activities to promoting the equitable access of clean, safe water supplies, protecting natural water sources such as lakes, rivers and aquifers and supporting other water related development efforts.

The OPEC Fund acknowledges that one of the biggest issues gaining urgency in the world today is that of dwindling water supplies. All over the globe, water tables are falling, and in some of the arid developing countries per capita consumption is only 20 liters per day, less that 10% of the global average. Given the vast volumes that are needed to irrigate and feed burgeoning populations, scarcity of this finite resource poses serious problems, and as often is the case, it is the poorest countries that are hardest hit.

For many years, the Fund has been encouraging projects that seek ways to address this complex issue. These range from water conservation initiatives to research into the use of saline water for irrigation. Just recently, the Fund approved a grant of US$500,000 to the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas in support of a project aimed at improving the livelihoods of rural populations in the arid regions of West Asia and North Africa.