Mr. Toshitami Kaihara, Governor of Hyogo Prefecture, Mr. Kazutoshi Sasayama, Ma yor of Kobe, Hon. Shin Sakurai, chairman, Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Po pulation and Development (AFPPD), Mr. Fukusaburo Maeda, Chairman, the Asian Pop ulation and Development Association (APDA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive director , United Na-tions Population Fund (UNFPA), Mr. V.T. Palan, Regional Director of East and South East Asia and Oceania Region, International Planned Parenthood F ederation (IPPF), Par-liamentary delegates and Ladies and Gentleman,

I would like to congratulate the convening of the 13th Asian Parliamentarians' Meeting on Population and Development. I understand that a topic of the confere nce is "Population, Water Resources and Development". When I heard that you wil l be taking up the issue of water, I thought it was a very timely topic.

Water is indispensable for all living beings. And this water is facing a grave crisis today. Out of all the various factors that limit the future of mankind, water, fresh water resource, that is, is said to be the first resource that wou ld get depleted on this planet. The amount of water on this globe may not chang e. However, the fresh water necessary for the sur-vival of life on earth is cha nging into water that cannot be used owing to pollution and excessive use.

Without water, food production is impossible. Even if shortage of drinking wate r does not occur, what would happen if we can no longer produce food that is in dispensable for the survival of mankind? Increase of population changes our lif estyle through greater demand for food and drinking water, and industrializatio n also contributes to greater use of water. Thus, the demand for water increase s at a higher rate than the increase of population.

In fact, it is said that one thousand tons of fresh water is needed in order to produce one ton of grain, which is our staple food. In the breadbaskets of the world, shortage of fresh water in producing grains is said to be the greatest l imiting factor of production.

Excess of use of agricultural water from spring to summer has already dried up the Yel-low River in china. Colorado River in the United States is no longer re aching the Gulf of California because it has dried up due to the pumping up of water for agricultural use. The situation is very serious.