Robinson calls for action on water

FORMER PRESIDENT Mary Robinson yesterday called on students and activists to take action in relation to the future of water.

FORMER PRESIDENT Mary Robinson yesterday called on students and activists to take action in relation to the future of water.

Mrs Robinson, president of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, was speaking in Dublin at Trinity College, where she took part in the launch of a series of partnerships on the theme of water, led by TCD’s Science Gallery. The launch coincided with UN World Water Day.

Mrs Robinson said the partnerships between the gallery, Harvard University and organisations across the world challenged everyone to consider the place of water in climate justice.

She told students and activists in Dublin, and those watching a live webcast in Harvard, one billion people have no access to clean water, 2.5 billion have no access to sanitation and a further billion would suffer “terrible water stress this century”.

READ MORE

She said issues relating to water impacted greatly on climate justice and did not impact uniformly or fairly on men and women.

Yesterday’s launch included a number of collaborations, among them the Harvard Idea Translation Lab, a collaboration for TCD undergraduates; and the Future of Water exhibition, involving prototype projects offering solutions to water problems, which will be shown in the gallery next October.

Meanwhile, EU commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs told a conference organised by development charity Trócaire in Dublin yesterday that EU countries had a duty to meet the target of spending 0.7 per cent of GNP on development aid despite the global economic downturn.

He was speaking at an event to discuss Trócaire’s Leading Edge 2020 document about the future for international non-government organisations.

Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O’Sullivan said the Government was committed to meeting the 0.7 GNP target by 2015. However, she said this goal would be “difficult to achieve” and it is imperative aid is used to maximise the impact on poor people and communities.