Greetings from the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey! 

This is the world's largest water event in a city where water is not only the substance of the conference but also incorporated into its location.  This is because the conference is taking place on two sides of the Bosporus (a straight that forms the boundary between the European and Asian part of Turkey) with ferries and a passenger bridge for participants to travel between the two venues.  This concept brings out, in a tangible way, the main theme for this year's Forum, "Bridging Divides for Water". 

What is the World Water Forum?

The World Water Forum is organized by the World Water Council and began in 1997 in Morocco.  The Forum occurs every three years with the previous events taking place in Netherlands (2000), Japan (2003) and most recently in Mexico (2006).  The aim of the Forum is to put water firmly on the international agenda and facilitate global collaboration on water and sanitation though a series of discussions, side events, panels, workshops and other methods of fostering dialogue. Participants come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from academia, industry, non-profit organizations, students, government, think tanks, and intergovernmental organizations to name a few. 

What's the Purpose of the World Water Forum?

According to the World Water Forum's website, it primarily serves four main purposes:

• To raise the importance of water on the political agenda
• To support the deepening of discussions towards the solution of international water issues in the 21st century
• To formulate concrete proposals and bring their importance to the world's attention
• To generate political commitment 

Why Water and Why Now?

For those who haven't followed my blogs on water, I will quickly summarize why thousands of people are in Istanbul this week to discuss the important issue of water.

• The sheer number of people impacted by the global safe water and sanitation crisis is staggering: nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean, safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people lack access to a toilet. 
• Global warming will only exacerbate what is already the largest environmental public health crisis on the planet.  For more on these linkages see: http://www.nrdc.org/international/water/peril.pdf.
• We have many of the solutions today to address this crisis but we need to get these solutions deployed sustainably and at the scale necessary to bring this crisis around.  For more information on some solutions see: http://www.nrdc.org/water/sanitation/files/sani.pdf
• We are currently at the midpoint of the United Nations International Water Decade-a decade to concentrate political and media attention to work together to bring safe water to all the world's people. 
• We are already starting to see traction on this issue, especially in the United States both in Congress (with the passage of landmark bipartisan legislation in 2005 called the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act) and with our President.  It is my pleasure to share a quote from President Obama's inauguration speech where he said:  

"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow...".

• However, the time is ripe to build on these initial beginnings of political recognition of this global crisis.  This week in Istanbul is a positive step in that direction by bringing together decision-makers and advocates to find ways to elevate the water crisis on the global agenda. 

Opening Ceremonies: March 16, 2009

To kick off the World Water Forum, today's opening ceremonies featured presentations and participation from high-level officials including: Albert II, Prince of Monaco; Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey; Emomali Rakhmon, President of Tajikistan; Addas El Fassi, Prime Minister of Morocco; Prince of Orange Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands; Celal Talabani, President of Iraq; Naruhito Kotaishi, Crown Prince of Japan; and Sha Zukan, UN Undersecretary-General. 

In addition to speeches highlighting the critical role that water plays in specific countries and within various governments, the ceremonies included a presentation by children representing twenty-one countries who went on stage to symbolize cultural cooperation.  We also had the rare treat of listening to a wonderful concert by the Tekfen Philharmonic to complete the opening ceremonies. 

The Forum is off to a great start and I am looking forward to a week of interesting discussion, debate, and opportunities for further action that I can share with my colleagues.  As an advocate for safe water and sanitation for the countries most in need, this week will be a chance for me to both learn more about what we can do in the U.S. to help solve this crisis and what more needs to be done. 

Stay tuned, I'll be blogging all week.