After the 5th World Water Forum
The 5th World Water Forum, held in Istanbul, Turkey on March 16-22, 2009, proved to be the largest water-related event ever organized with a record breaking participation of over 30,000 people. Ministers, parliamentarians, local authorities, NGOs and civil society representatives, experts and scientists, UN agencies, professional organizations gathered at the crossroads of continents to discuss and find solutions to water-related challenges of the 21st century.
With 106 thematic sessions, 5 high level panels, 7 regional processes and over 100 side events, the great success of the 5th World Water Forum made a remarkable impact across the global water community and reaffirmed Turkey's pivotal role amongst the greatest nations of water. Although the outcomes of the Forum may fail to satisfy those looking for more concrete solutions, the Forum strived to "bridge the divides for water" through facilitating open and all-inclusive dialogues, which demonstrated that there is in fact more that unites us than divides us.
Most important of all, the political outcome documents of the 5th World Water Forum are of great value for the international water community as they provide guidance to shape the global water strategies and actions. The Istanbul Ministerial Statement and the accompanying Istanbul Water Guide, which were circulated as a UN General Assembly document (A/63/852), include critical recommendations and commitments on global water issues and successfully reflect the Forum's thematic outcomes. The Istanbul Water Consensus, a new compact for local and regional authorities to prepare action plans in order to analyse and cope with the challenges, asks signatory cities to commit to developing water management strategies suitable for working towards the Millennium Development Goals and to address urbanization, climate change and other global pressures at local level. The Consensus is still open to signature.
The political outcome documents of the 5th World Water Forum can be found within the Global Water Framework report, which also provides a compilation of the Forum's regional outcomes and thematic recommendations, as well as the Children's Declaration and the Youth Declaration.
Following the Forum, the 5th World Water Forum Secretariat compiled a synthesis book, An Istanbul Perspective on Bridging the Divides for Water. A collection of eight individual chapters that provide a cross-cutting analysis of the most prominent subjects addressed during the Forum, the book was compiled through careful studies on Forum outcome documents and discussions edited in Forum sessions.
The Final Report, regional reports and other publications of the 5th World Water Forum are available here.