Corporations should pay higher water fees than households

In the 20th century, the use of water resources has increased sixfold, despite the threefold increase in the world's population. Meanwhile, while some of the limited water resources are consumed rapidly and unconsciously as a result of industrialization and rapid urbanization, some of them have become polluted and unusable and cause harm to the environment. As a result, more than 1 billion people in the world currently lack clean drinking water. More than 2 billion people do not have the water necessary for health and sanitation.

One of the global problems is that the water resources on earth are not equally distributed in time and space. Some areas have a large amount of water, while others suffer from water scarcity. For example, the amount of water flowing from the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean in one minute is equal to the water consumption of New York City for three years.

In the face of the seriousness of the situation, in the UN Millennium Declaration, the target of halving the world population that does not have safe drinking water, and in the Action Plan published as a result of the World Sustainable Development Summit (log9), the target of halving the population that does not have the water necessary for health and sanitation, was set by 2015, and UN member countries organizations and all interested parties are called upon to make efforts to achieve these goals.

Another reason why water has been at the top of the international agenda in recent years is that reports and scenarios prepared by some countries, various think tanks, academic circles and some non-governmental organizations (NGO) indicate that some of the conflicts in the 21st century will arise due to water and water scarcity will result. There have been opinions and claims that conflicts will threaten stability and peace in the world. Parallel to this, studies on mechanisms for the management of possible future water crises and the prevention of conflicts have been accelerated.

It will be useful to evaluate the World Third Water Forum and Ministerial Conference, which was held in Kyoto on March 16-23, 2003, hosted by Japan and in cooperation with the World Water Council (WWC), in the light of these developments. The participation of more than 6000 people outside of Japan, 182 countries, more than 100 Ministers, 43 international organizations and hundreds of NGOs from outside of Japan, even in the environment of the Iraq war, clinched the importance given to water issues in the Forum and Ministerial Conference, which the world community attaches great importance to.