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Tibet Justice Center Holds Roundtable Discussion at the IUCN
Mekong flows from Tibet through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam |
Dharamsala 22 November: Tibet Justice Center, a non-governmental organisation based in the US, held a roundtable discussion, 'water for human development' Friday at the third International Union for Conservation of Nature (now called World Conservation Congress) in Bangkok, Thailand. The roundtable, attended by an audience from eleven countries, including five from south and east Asia, examined a broad range of issues, from transboundary and local participatory water governance, to water privatisation and accountability, and their linkages with human well being and ethics.
"Diverse case studies on water governance and management framed the discussion", a press release issued by the organisation said. "There is a growing consensus that centralised top-down approaches to water governance and management are unethical," Ngawang Legshe, a Tibet Justice Center delegate, was quoted by the release. "Those peoples and sentient beings affected in the local ecosystems are stakeholders that can no longer be left out of this approach to water management."
Doris Cellarius of Sierra Club USA recounted community responses to water privatisation attempts in the United States. Antonio Claparols of the Philippines spoke of the need to treat basins as integrated systems, including the headwaters.
A citizen group, the release said, offered compelling testimony on the efforts of their community to save their homes and livelihoods in the face of dam development plans. Participants found consensus around the need for meaningful citizen participation with government agencies and officials in water governance and management.
The roundtable also examined transboundary water management, cooperation among co-riparian nations, and the problems that downstream nations face when their upstream neighbors will not collaborate on water management. Two Thai government officials affiliated with the Mekong River Commission discussed the political challenges of working with upstream, non-partner nations, China and Burma.
Ms. Zohora of Bangladesh, according to the press release, framed the issue of accountability in transboundary water management by noting the all-too common practice of international lending and management institutions shielding themselves from accountability for failed projects. The press release quoting her said, "Where is the governance in such collaborations?"
The participants sought mechanisms for implementing and monitoring meaningful governance. The discussion centered on a 2000 IUCN resolution, co-sponsored by Tibet Justice Center, which mandated that the Director General move forward with developing local peoples' participation, taking a regional, transboundary approach, and for governments to work with local citizens and groups.
"China is incrementally opening up to the concerns of the local people and to those of the affected downstream nations," said Tashi Tsering, leader of Tibet Justice Center delegation to the Congress. "China and the IUCN can promote participatory transboundary water governance by acting on commitments they made in the 2000 IUCN resolution to protect Asia's major river systems in a regional, collaborative way."
The IUCN conference which began on 17 November will go on till 25 November.
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