The Symposium on Water, the City and Urban Planning, held in Paris on
10-1 I April 1997 with 300 participants from over 50 countries, having
considered the importance and urgency of addressing water and sanitation
problems of the world's cities in a forceful and operational way and building
upon the findings of previous international conferences, including the Dublin
Statement (1992), the Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (Rio, 1992), the Beijing Declaration (1996) and the Habitat-II
Agenda (1996) and in the spirit of the First World Water Forum (Marrakech,
1997), urges the international community, authorities, local groups and citizens
to adopt the guidelines, measures and recommendations found below.
Whereas:
The marked process of urbanisation in most countries and especially in
the developing world is causing exponentially increasing pressures on the
available water resources that is reaching critical proportions. The sanitary
and ecological problems arising from the human concentrations and disposal of
waste from urban agglomerations pose formidable challenges. The
attainment of effective water management strategies to achieve a sustainable
urban development and in some cases just to ensure the long-term survival of
cities, threatens to become an elusive goal and calls out for our attention;
Water related problems in cities touch upon all elements of the water
cycle: water, land, air, and energy; that is, they are associated to all
human activities. Furthermore, the social, cultural, political, institutional,
and economic aspects are integral, even dominant components of water management
issues and can not be set aside when designing solutions to existing problems,
particularly when dealing with questions of equity and sustainability. The
nature of water as an endowment and economic good, and as a basic necessity not
to be denied to any sector of society is a duality which must be faced with
wisdom and compassion;
An integrated approach is necessary with regard to environmental and
water management. Urban planning and its connected water aspects should
encompass integration from the physical standpoint beyond the city limits,
considering both the river basin where it is located and the surrounding region
affected by and interacting with the city; and from the multi-sectorial
standpoint. All relevant sectors must be functionally and meaningfully involved
in this process including education, agriculture, finance, energy, etc. The
presence of a responsive population with proper mechanisms to participate in
decision-making at local and higher levels is essential for effective results;
Each city has a set of particular conditions and problems which
precludes the automatic application of imported solutions. Nevertheless, a
wealth of experience and information has been accumulated by different cities
over the world in facing various types of urban water problems which deserve to
be studied and shared in order to learn how they may benefit other cities.
Recognising that it is pressing to act on :
The implementation of demand management measures, tending to decrease
the total water demand and to give priority to higher value uses. given the
rising pressures on available water resources today. A wise water pricing policy
recognising the economic value of water but having social sensitivity is an
essential component. It conceived subsidies benefiting the urban over the rural
population or the more affluent urban residents over the less well-off (who
might buy water from vendors) should not subsist. Well-designed incentives for
water saving and water reuse are a complementary component. Integrated sets of
technical, legal, economic and educational mechanisms considering the
responsiveness of the population are necessary ;
The alleviation of competing needs for water of rural and urban areas
by adopting more efficient agricultural approaches, such as the ones advocated
in the Cairo Statement International (Congress on Sustainability of Irrigated
Agriculture, 1996) and methods for the safe supply of urban stormwater and
wastewater for agriculture ;
The integrated management of surface and ground water in urban areas.
Groundwater is a resource often polluted by urban wastes. The interaction
between surface and groundwater, methods for safe recharge with wastewater
and/or stormwater, infrastructure systems and groundwater, consequences of
over-exploitation of groundwater, and, conversely, processes leading to
uncontrolled rise of the water table need to be looked into;
The timely consideration of environmentally sound projects that
will increase the availability of water where it is needed with the
understanding that there is largely no real global shortage of fresh
water, but that its temporal and spatial distribution is not the best.
Because of the long span of time between conception and implementation of water
projects, a delay today may be critical tomorrow ;
The development of appropriate approaches for urban drainage according
to climatic differences, as types of problems and relative weight of factors to
be considered varies considerably between, for instance, the humid tropics and
semi-arid zones ; special problems of developing countries, such as lack of
funding, improper maintenance, lack of qualified staff and public awareness have
to be properly addressed ;
The investigation of novel approaches, including : diversified water
quality demand management, with higher prices for higher quality water ; dry
sanitation as an alternative to traditional water-borne sanitation ;
consideration of stormwater as a resource for less demanding uses with open
drainage/storage options for on-site reuse or groundwater recharge ; local
treatment of stormwater using biological systems; harvesting and safe storage of
rainwater ; and development of technologies to recycle nutrients from wastewater
and dry sanitation facilities to agriculture with due account of constraints ;
The adoption of non-structural means for urban flood mitigation, as
structural solutions have proved to be at best partial solutions. Urban planning
guidelines and flood management strategies and tools should be developed as part
of an integral approach to the problem ;
The active involvement and participation of local communities
including concerned individuals, women, youths and local associations to
ensure the success of such measures. A dialogue between stakeholders and a
willingness to invert the traditional top-down decision process must be
instituted ;
The specific and urgent problems of the peri-urban, less privileged
areas in the outskirts of cities in developing countries caused by their
precarious status, lack of integration to the water supply and sanitation
systems and poor access to authorities and legal mechanisms, and that special
urban water programmes should be directed to them.
And, above all, the willingness and daring to conceive and apply new
solutions and systems when existing ones have proved inadequate and/or may
be impossible in other settings, as when attempting to view a developed world
city as a model for a humid tropics city with explosive growth. Also, when there
is no heavy burden from the past, such massive drainage and sanitation
infrastructure, new ideas can flourish.
The Symposium recommends :
The creation of a single and integrated structure for co-ordination and/or
management of each city in order to facilitate the participation of
stakeholders within the city, and the discussions with outside areas in order to
propose and carry out sound urban planning and water management actions ;
The improvement of knowledge on links between water, climate, urban
ecology, urban planning, health and the environment in each urban centre, and to
use the knowledge gained to inform and facilitate the communication between the
concerned actors ; the formulation of reliable projections of water resources
and demand and of urban infrastructure equipment needs in order to property plan
investments; and the adoption of a clear water pricing structure with a lifeline
rate considering the real payment capacity of users and covering service charges
(operation & maintenance, non-subsidised new works) to ensure continuity of
service ; and
The establishment of a permanent dialogue between urban planners and
water professionals to develop integrated plans and to promote the integrated
management of urban waters, protecting the environment and incorporating
external constraints, while considering all relevant aspects : water supply,
drainage and sewerage, flood management, agricultural and recreational uses
;
and proposes :
The formulation of a pragmatic Management Support System for each city
for the pursuit of sustainable development, built around a reliable and
interactive database of urban development and water resources and an associated
Geographical Information System (GIS), to be progressively implemented according
to the means available in each case. At first it will be a vehicle for
communication and interaction between municipal authorities, urban
professionals, water industry and user associations to test and improve the
indicators ; and
The establishment of an International Network of Cities, a partnership
of cities that will facilitate the application of the recommendations of the
Symposium and the sharing of their experience for their mutual benefit and for
that of other cities of the world. UNESCO and the "Académie de I'Eau" have
offered their support to this initiative, and the International Hydrological
Programme (IHP) stands ready to provide the technical advice and appropriate
training tools that the network of cities may require.
