Toespraak van minister Schultz van Haegen bij de opening van de Amsterdam International Water Week,

Toespraak | 03-11-2015

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to welcome you all to The Netherlands – a country that lives and breathes water. And I would especially like to welcome EU Commissioner Vella, Minister Martinho from Mozambique and Deputy Minister Tshwete from South Africa.

If you arrived here by plane, you may not have realized that when you landed at Schiphol airport, you landed on a pumped dry lake – five meters below sea level. The place where you waited to claim your baggage is the same place where ships used to wreck in storms – just two centuries ago. This country has a unique relationship with water and you will probably experience it firsthand during in the coming days. But before we all dive into the events of the week, let me take a moment to tell you why I believe it is so important that you are here. And why the Amsterdam International Water Week is so important to me.

The best way of showing you this is by looking at the news. Because every day our newspapers, news websites and news programs are flooded with stories about water crises.

Take the story about, Olga, for example. A lady from the town of Prijedor in Bosnia – a country with rivers flowing through every major city. Olga told a journalist she is more afraid every year, because flooding from the nearby river grows more intense every year. ‘We are all afraid. We can’t sleep’, she said, bursting into tears.

Or take the Philippines, where just two weeks ago typhoon Lando caused enormous damage and severe flooding. 'It is the worst flood I’ve seen in my entire life. I’ve never seen anything like this,' said a farmer named Reynaldo Ramos, who lives close to the capital Manila – a city of 2,5 million people.

Or take Richard Harvell, a sixty-seven year old man who was washed away after a thunderstorm in October – while he was camping in California. The sad news is that, as of today, he has not been found.

After suffering the driest years in its history, California hopes and prays for a wet winter. But the tragic fate of Richard Harvell shows that both drought and rain pose enormous risks.

These are all examples of what happens in the world on a daily basis: storms, rains and floods – but we also see a lack of rain and a lack of clean drinking water.

This combination of challenges is difficult – and grows more complicated every year: because more and more people in today’s world move to cities for opportunities and a better way of life. But it is in our cities where water related risks are the most pressing. Our biggest cities are the ones in vulnerable areas, in low-lying river deltas. Cities just like Amsterdam. For the Netherlands, these issues are real. They have been part of our lives for hundreds of years.

We have found an approach to deal with them – and we want to share this with others. But we also need to constantly refine and renew our own approach – and that is why we need the expertise of other countries as well. Because what happens in the Netherlands, happens worldwide. And the human search for dignity, security and prosperity leads to new insecurities.

It is therefore no surprise that this year the World Economic Forum sounded the alarm bell: water crises are the number 1 global risk in the foreseeable future. Water runs through everything.

It touches infrastructure and the quality of life in the world's cities, it touches geopolitics and local governance, it touches climate change and food and energy supply for all. And at its most basic, water is about our survival – so the stakes as high as they can be.

When I think about this, I often remember a quote by Robert F. Kennedy. He once spoke to students in South Africa about the need to create a better world – to take on the big problems of that time. Kennedy said to them: 'Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty.' It was, after all, in the time of the Cold War.

And although the problems of the 1960s are different from today – we still live in times of danger and uncertainty. Water, I believe, runs through all our global uncertainties – from Bosnia to The Philippines and from the California to The Netherlands.

So what does this mean?

To me it means that the news stories I started with are not just about three ordinary people. They are, in fact, about you and me – about all of us in this room today.
Because we all are working on water-related issues every day – striving to help those in need.

We see how floods, drought, water quality and sanitation are interrelated. We know the risks. We share the urgency And we understand there are many uncertainties.

Luckily for us, Robert Kennedy did not end his speech with a sober conclusion. He added a plea to keep working towards a better, safer and more beautiful world. And he did so by using a water metaphor. Let me quote again:

'Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or does something to improve the fate of others […], he sets off a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls…' End quote.

Ladies and gentlemen,

you can help build that current. A current that is built when you share ideas and approaches and begin new cooperation. It is built when that leads to applicable technology and local solutions. It is built when you use events – like the one that brings us together here today – to raise local and global water awareness.

Together we can build a world of water safety, water security and water resiliency. As you know the United Nations recently embraced 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Among them is a goal dedicated to water management and sanitation – and one edicated towards safe and resilient cities and communities. But now that we share these goals, it is time we get to work to achieve them, together. So I challenge all of you here today: to help us reach them – and to create tiny ripples of hope.
Ripples that one day – with all of us working together – become currents of change.

This International Water Week is your opportunity to make a difference - to expand your network, your knowledge and your impact.

We have seen some of these ripples already. For example in yesterday’s bike ride through Amsterdam – showing the urgency of urban resilience. Or in the search for practical innovations to reduce water use and ensure the supply of quality food. Some of these innovations will be presented here tomorrow.

Ladies and gentlemen,

every idea you share this week, every new approach to increase water resilience, every new technology that helps save water or improve hygiene or sanitation –
they are all ripples of hope. Not just for the people who end up in news stories. But also for those who don’t: ordinary people from Mozambique, from Bangladesh and from The Netherlands.

And for every large country or small community that needs to deal with the uncertainties of today and tomorrow.

When your plane takes off again from Schiphol Airport – five metres below sea level – you will see a small river delta below you.

And when you see our country from above, I hope you will think back to the ways you used this International Water Week and the Aquatech Exhibiton – to build a safer, more prosperous and more beautiful world – one ripple, one current at a time.

I wish you all a very successful Water Week.

Thank you.