Openingstoespraak van de Prins van Oranje bij 16e UNSGAB vergadering in New York, 21 juni 2011

Toespraak | 21-06-2011

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends,

Welcome to the sixteenth meeting of the UN SG's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.

After touring around for seven years from one continent to the other we are finally here again in New York where it all started for UNSGAB.

For the newcomers among us, the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan established UNSGAB in the year 2004.

He felt a high level advisory board was needed to draw extra attention to the MDG targets for drinking water and sanitation.

He rightly believed that access to water and sanitation is indispensable for the development of a nation and thus also crucial for achieving the other MDGs.

Now we are here seven years later and we just experienced the launch of the Sustainable Sanitation, five year drive to 2015.
An ultimate call to the world to do more to achieve the MDG target for sanitation and to end the detrimental practice of open defecation.

As Chair of the Board I would like to congratulate all of you, and in particular Uschi, for working behind the scenes to ensure the Drive to 2015 was endorsed by member states and partners. We are all extremely pleased that an UN resolution was adopted calling for the Drive to 2015, and especially that the resolution includes an unprecedented unanimous call by the UN member states to end open defecation.

Despite all our efforts and despite all the work done by many dedicated partners in the past decade, we still face a major challenge in providing safe and basic sanitation to a staggering number of 2.6 million people. Since member states agreed on the MDG targets, a significant number of people have gained access to sanitation. However, the world's population grew faster than the number of toilets.

Regarding the MDG target for water the world has performed better. We will achieve by 2015 the water target in terms of access to an improved source of water. However access to safe water is a completely different story. Estimates tell us that billions of people do not get their water from a safe source of potable water. UNSGAB has a role to play here to draw attention to this very concerning problem.

Before I briefly explain the structure and objectives of this meeting I would like to introduce a few new faces that we see here around the table.

First of all I would like to warmly welcome H.E. Mr Chen Lei to the UNSGAB family. Mr Lei is the Minister for Water Resources of China. We are privileged that you willingly accepted the Secretary-General's invitation to become member of UNSGAB. Your experience, knowledge and network will be of great value for the mission of our Board.

Also a special welcome to the EU delegation with Mr Gary Quince, MsArnoulds and MrLiebaert. In February, Poul Nielson and I had a very positive meeting with the EU Commissioner for Development, MrPiebalgs. We agreed to foster the relationship between UNSGAB and the EU. The fact that you are now here demonstrates our growing collaboration and we hope this will lead to productive cooperation in future.

I also wish to introduce our friends from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Mr Frank Rijsberman and Mrs Sara Rogge. UNSGAB is thankful for the foundation's support. We are keen to join forces to achieve our common goals. In this meeting we look forward to hearing the details of the foundation's new water, sanitation and hygiene strategy and also to explore what role UNSGAB could play to help facilitating its implementation.

The Board has benefited from the continued participation of the OECD and for this meeting I'm happy to welcome MrBonnis.

I am also pleased to see many representatives from the missions here in New York. In particular the representatives from Germany and Panama. These two countries have graciously offered to host the next two UNSGAB meetings.

When having a look at the agenda for this meeting, I would like to draw your attention to three important sessions.

This afternoon we will discuss financing matters together with the EU, the OECD and Roy Torkelson will brief us on the access to local financing exercise in Colombia. In addition the financing working group requested a special brainstorming session to explore where the potential is for financing of water and sanitation and whether there is need to adjust our strategy for meeting the financing objectives.

Tomorrow we have scheduled a session on Rio+20 where a few guests will inform us about the preparatory work in the lead up to Rio+20. It is time to define our role in this process and identify where UNSGAB can add value.

And finally we will have on Thursday morning the session on post 2015 targets. We should try to benefit from the fact that we are now here at UN Head Quarters where a lot is being designed and considered before it is being presented to the rest of world. I believe it is our task to make sure that new post 2015 targets on water and sanitation are central components to the post-2015 development agenda.

It is clear. The agenda is, as usual, full and challenging. We have seven years behind us. An awful lot has been achieved. Though I personally hope that the last seven years have simply laid the foundation to ensure that the years between now and 2015 will be our most productive ever.

Thank you.