A platform for all “solutions” concerning water
The Sixth World Water Forum is an opportunity to collect hundreds of contributions from large organisations and private individuals in western capitals or rural areas of the Maghreb region. In order to give them all a chance, a team is running an internet platform in Marseilles.
From micro-solutions to solutions concerning all of mankind (photo MN)
Djamel Eddine Djaballah, environment minister of the Arab League, is using the platform to present his institution’s priorities for preservation of water resources. Enrique Ortiz, of Hidrogaia SL, has posted a series of instructions for the prevention of water-related risks. The City of Paris calls for specific policies dedicated to people not included in the statistics, such as travellers and the homeless. Pierre Marconi extols the virtues of a reusable plastic filter to avoid the need to purchase large numbers of plastic water bottles. Finally, Karine Frouin proposes a methodological guide to human-powered water pumps in sub-Saharan Africa... Among the solutions there are large ones, intended for all mankind, and then there are examples drawn from a micro-experience, which will be repeated if somebody elsewhere is interested. Diversity prevails. The discussion platform at the World Water Forum in Marseilles held on 15 February 2012 brought forth 12,500 such suggestions, presentations, and examples of involvement in the debate. A team of ten persons based in Marseilles is administering this veritable flood of ideas. It hopes that it will continue in debates between 12 and 17 March 2012 during the World Water Forum.
The debate will continue outside of the Forum
Stéphane Simonet: “Every single contribution needs to be looked at” (photo MN)
“Indeed, we hope that the discussion will continue outside of the Forum,” Stéphane Simonet adds. An Arabic-speaker from Marseilles, Simonet has put his investigations to the south and east of the Mediterranean on hold for a few months. The author of reports on the relationship between global warming and water resources, he is now organising the online debate of the World Forum and is ensuring that nobody gets left out. “Indeed, about a hundred posts are still being considered. What we have to do is help their authors to formulate their solutions so that they can be understood.”
Stéphane Simonet’s small team’s leitmotiv is to “make sure that the debate includes every possible aspect of water: every contribution is welcome, including the most prominent aspects of the debate, such as the right of access to water.”
The butterfly effect of a good old fax
From micro-solutions to solutions concerning all of mankind (photo MN)
English, which most of the contributors handle with a greater or lesser degree of success, is king at the World Forum. But what about the Tamil plumber or Fulani diviner wanting to bring their valuable experience to the table but not so adept with the language of Shakespeare? “Our partner Effet Papillon is responsible for mobilising contributors from around the world,” emphasises Stéphane Simonet. A group of 80 NGOs, Effet Papillon has use in France of the Paris headquarters of the Eau Vive Association, which is the French correspondent. And, to collect the solutions of contributors not equipped with a computer, the fax, not entirely obsolete after all, comes to the fore. The adventure is expected to continue beyond the Sixth World Water Forum itself, because the application of Marseilles was chosen, among other things, due to its proposal to perpetuate the tools of the debate. The platform will be a long-term project.
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