thers have striven hard to maintain guiding our lives to be in harmony with th
e environ-ment.
Globally, the water resources are tight. At the Geneva meeting we heard an ala
rming prophecy from a delegate from the Forum of Africa and Middle East Parlia
mentarians on Population and Development that whereas the region fought wars o
ver oil in the 1970s the future wars would be fought over water. At present ag
gregate precipitation per popu-lation is used to measure water resources requi
rement. With this yardstick, a country like Japan considered to have abundant
water is shorter in its supply compared to Saudi Ara-bia.
Explosive growth of population is reducing this valuable water resources to sc
arcity. Water is essential to the life of all living things. No creature lives
without water. We know that marine resources seemingly independent of fresh wa
ter are in fact depend on nutritients that are emptied by flowing rivers. I be
lieve what humankind can do to resolve the issue is first of all to manage pop
ulation increase and thereby to lighten load on the environment and secondly t
o nurture it by conducting our lives in such gentle ways as to avoid over burd
ening it.
Furthermore, water has an educational impact, for all men, including those wit
h little education depend on it. If water is bad, no amount of efforts will im
prove public health of the area. No mother is unwanting in her wish for the su
rvival and health of her child. Education imparted through Water can be expect
ed to enrich her life just as rain does to a parched land. This can have impor
tant implications in our efforts to resolve the prob-lem of population. This a
pplies to agriculture as well. Community development can be promoted centered
around Water.
By listening to her wishes and tailoring education to meet her needs we can op
en a wide window of opportunity to the future.
The population challenge we face is not an unpredictable natural disaster as t
he one that hit Kobe. It is a problem that can be avoided with our resolve and
the understanding of the community. Let us do our utmost today so that we can
ensure a future that is full of hope.
I am confident that we will have earnest deliberations and that they will be r
eflected in our national policies.
