It’s up to YOU! Can public participation lead to better water management?

The 5th World Water Forum was opened in Istanbul, Turkey on 16 March 2009. A variety of events throughout the week aim to focus on just one overarching theme: "Bridging Divides for Water".

Public participation is considered to be at the base of good water resources management. On 17 March 2009, the French Water Partnership held a session "It’s up to YOU! Can public participation lead to better water management?" The session addressed how to deal with competing interests and preferences from different water stakeholders, and how to ensure stakeholders’ participation in water management beyond tokenism. The session also tackled the possibility of developing international guidelines to assist as a benchmark in promoting a participatory approach in water management.

The Forum will continue till 22 March 2009.

For more information on the public participation session, contact: Ms. Emmanuelle Pometan, French Water Partnership, tel. +33 1 (0) 42 01 46 96.