“Excellencies, now is the time for bolder vision and urgent action. We need to decide wisely for ourselves and for future generations,” Duterte said.
On Saturday (April 23), Duterte in his video message during the Heads of States and Government Meeting at the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Kumamoto City said water, being a resource so vital for humans and ecosystems for survival and sustenance, access to it and its related services is rightly considered a basic human right.
The President cited the Philippines as a lesson in caution and an example for the need for urgent action, stressing that despite the abundance of water in his country, there remains an enormous challenge to ensure people’s universal access to safe, affordable and accessible water.
“This requires an urgent sense of community action in the region, an integrated and coherent policy and the resolve to create opportunities for investment and collaboration for technological solutions,” he said.
Duterte bared several other measures to address challenges such as creating a robust regime for sustainable water management, using the best available science in water resource generation and climate resilient infrastructure, and securing sustainable forest protection and watershed management.
He said regional experts for technology development and transfer must also collaborate, and countries must promote transboundary benefits for the common people’s development towards 2050 and beyond.
“And finally, we need to forge a strong alliance between our strategic partners to address entrenched corporate compulsions to ensure environmental compliance and just economic regulatory regimes,” he said.
Duterte also pointed out that solutions to water-related issues must come from government and non-government stakeholders alike.
The President commended the Japanese government for the continued initiative in successfully organizing the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit.
Last week, Duterte said in his public address that developed countries must compensate developing nations suffering from the impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, Climate Change Commission Secretary Robert E. A. Borje said central to the Philippines’ position in climate change mitigation and adaptation is climate justice.
“To the least responsible, to those with the least resources, to those most exposed, we need to do more,” he said.
Borje also expressed the Philippines’ solidarity with all nations, which had to deal with water-related disasters brought about by climate change drivers.
Photo by Armando Fenequito