High Level Panel on Water and Climate
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Ladies and gentlemen,
The Netherlands is a low lying country. Two third of the country lies, up to 7 meters, below sea level and 65% of Dutch GNP is generated in this area.
We have been coping with water management for centuries. Water management brought us safety and economic benefits.
We know that climate change will affect our safety, our environment, our prosperity and our economy in the long term. But we do not know how fast the effects of climate change will take place.
This means that, alongside mitigation, we are focusing strongly on adaptation. We need to adapt now! We need to face the facts, think ahead and prepare ourselves for the future.
When I started as vice-minister for water management, I installed a High Level Committee to advise me how to be best prepared to the coming 100 years.
This committee drew up the so-called Delta Programme that serves as a guideline for our long-term adaptation plans. This programme includes governance, planning and finance arrangements.
The Dutch government starts the implementation of the programme this year. I am currently working on a legal framework – the so called Delta Act.
My Delta act supports:
· A solid basis for the required funding;
· The Delta Programme itself; and
· The new created authority of a Delta manager, who will be responsible for the coherence in and progress of the Delta Programme.
In my responsibility for the Delta programme, I will closely cooperate with my colleague ministers from the departments of Agriculture, Environment & Spatial Planning and Finance.
The Delta Programme focuses on a period of 100 years and contains, amongst others, the following basic principles:
- Water is a connecting issue in climate change;
- A flexible and adaptive governance on national, regional and local level; and
- To find multifunctional solutions for water challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, climate change affects us all. We strongly need each other.
My policy is to work in close cooperation with other regions, especially the delta countries, to exchange knowledge and share experiences
My main message to the 5th world water forum participants is:
The water community needs to agree on the importance of putting adaptation on the international agenda as part of the climate debate in Copenhagen.
That should be the result of the Water World Forum 2009. We need a package of measures for mitigation AND adaptation.
Tomorrow I will discuss this in the discussion during the Ministerial Round Table ‘Bridging the water and climate agendas’ which I will co-chair together with my colleague minister from Bangladesh.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our climate is changing, that is one thing we can be certain of.
It will put its mark on the lives of our children, our grandchildren and generations thereafter. The generations who will inherit our planet from us.
On their behalf I am call upon the international water community to act on behalf of the safety, sustainability and economic future of our planet.
We need to adapt now!