"Politics" intruded occasionally, but technical issues dominated the discussion both in and out of formal committee meetings at the UN Water Conference held March 14-25, 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. A number of recommendations were supported by all delegates—U.S. and Russian, Arab and Israeli, the Group of 77 and the indus-trialized countries—and participants remarked frequently at the high degree of consensus that quickly developed among ordinarily differing groups.
Technical issues superseded political conflict for a number of reasons. Among these were the detailed preconference preparation, the presence, on most delegations, of technical experts who had long ago argued out their differences in the years of UNESCO's International Hydrological Decade (1965-75), and the effective informal participation by representatives of the nongovernmental organizations (such as the National Audubon Society) in actual conference proceedings. More than this, however, was the overwhelming recognition by participating nations that water is basic for human life and that it must be made available to all the world's peoples in a way that satisfies human needs and environmental constraints.
The Mar del Plata Plan of Action, which was unanimously supported, went beyond the notion of water development. It placed emphasis on community water supplies and sanitation; control of water pollution caused by industrial effluents and agricultural runoff; control of water-related diseases associated with large-scale water development; and other technical, social, and economic issues related to water management. Such issues as providing convenient water supplies to alleviate the position of women as drawers of water and local participation in designing and managing community water supplies so that sys-tems can be permanently maintained were raised by both developed and developing countries. For example, Tanzania supported the United States in raising issues about women, and the United States supported Tanzania in the latter's concern about pesticide use and water pollution. These coalitions were informal and frequent.
The spirit of compromise also led to naming 1980-90 as an "International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade"—a large swallow of a public relations title, but one that provides countries and donor agencies with a useful aegis under which they can seek support for new programs.
The peaceful and technical proceedings of the conference unfortunately did not lend themselves to extensive press coverage, and many reporters seized upon the few political issues that surfaced briefly (Israel and occupied lands, Third World demands for a fund). Delegates were concerned that this unbalanced coverage would lead to a public misconception that the UN Water Conference was only one in a sequence of rambunctious international gatherings with no potential positive influence on human well-being.
The positive implications of the conference, largely ignored by the press, were summarized in a major resolution unanimously passed, which urged countries to develop national water management plans with emphasis on water for human consumption and agricultural use. This resolution has already led countries to request external technical assistance in these activities from AID and the World Bank. The conference also gave new political importance to the role of water supplies in economic development. National leaders can refer to the conference and the unanimous resolutions passed there for international approval of their plans.
What is needed now—if the Mar del Plata Plan of Action is not to be filed away with the unremembered results of past UN conferences—is an international mechanism for channeling foreign assistance, coordinating country activities, and providing for an exchange of experience and ideas in this area. One of the UN agencies or what remains of the Water Conference secretariat should take up the challenge.
The spirit of cooperation at the water conference carried over to the UN Conference on Desertification, held in Nairobi, Kenya from August 29 to September 9, 1977. An equally ambitious plan of action was agreed upon and, in instance, a specific agency—the UN Environmental Program—was given responsibility for managing follow-up activities. The close linkages between water and desertification are expected to lead to coordination of follow-up activities from both conferences.
A version of this article appeared in print in the January 1978 issue of Resources magazine.
