Rival version of Chiang Mai declaration announced
The Nation


Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other Asia-Pacific leaders attend yesterday

The second Asia-Pacific Water Summit (APWS) ended yesterday with two versions of the Chiang Mai Declaration.

CHIANG MAI: - The official declaration by leaders of 40 countries highlighted the need to encourage the inclusion of disaster risk reduction in the United Nations' development agenda beyond 2015, upgrade regional cooperation, promote the efficient use of water resources, and forge better partnerships between the government and all other stakeholders in water-resource management and development.

The unofficial one, issued by the People's Network of North and Northeastern River Basins, also called for an integrated approach to water management that involved cooperation from all stakeholders.

Both versions came at a time when people in the region have become acutely aware of water-related threats, including disasters, and the need for cooperation, in the wake of a massive flood in 2011.

APWS members are now expected to increase transfers of technology and enhance capacity building and knowledge sharing to optimise manifold use of water and minimise adverse impacts from water-related risks and disasters on people's livelihood.

Rapid urbanisation, climate change and surging demand from agriculture have heaped pressure on scarce water supplies, while most people in the Asia-Pacific still lack access to safe water despite booming economic growth.

There could be a fight over resources unless countries agree to share water, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said at the forum yesterday. "No country in this region can handle these challenges alone."

The People's Network, meanwhile, said water management without proper understanding and fairness had led to disasters and many problems.

In its so-called People's Version of the Chiang Mai Declaration, the network recommended respect for local wisdom, as people living in the affected areas knew best about putting water management into the local context.

It also called on governments to proceed in line with good governance and ensure public participation in water management, especially when it came to big projects.


-- The Nation 2013-05-21

Plodprasop and Ahmedinajad were reported leaving in a jovial mood together after having thrashed out a lucrative Thai camels for Iranian water deal.

and so it ends and will be forgotten

One version is classic corporate speak.... a statement which could have just been agreed on by all the parties concerned with the need for an all expenses paid five star junket.

The other voices the concerns of the people most likely to be affected by the decisions agreed upon by the delegates and will be treated like they were....... as garbage.

One version is classic corporate speak.... a statement which could have just been agreed on by all the parties concerned with the need for an all expenses paid five star junket.

The other voices the concerns of the people most likely to be affected by the decisions agreed upon by the delegates and will be treated like they were....... as garbage.

Yes & to put it another way:

One version waxed lyrical about government, corporate & toothless regional body (e.g. Mekhong Commission) cooperation.

The other actually mentioned the people most affected.

Plodprasop and Ahmedinajad were reported leaving in a jovial mood together after having thrashed out a lucrative Thai camels for Iranian water deal.

You probably missed this one:

""Ahmadinejad is unable to attend the forum due to his volume of work ... instead the Iranian delegation will be headed by the Head of the Environmental Protection Organisation, Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh," Mohammad Sheikhan said, quoted by the ISNA news agency."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/640117-irans-ahmadinejad-to-join-thai-water-summit/page-5#entry6415712

Such international conferences are one more means of exerting control over natural resources by the neoliberal economic machine that is trashing the planet in the name of prosperity.

It won't end well, but the mantra of free trade, "development", and "growth" will be voiced ad infinitum by those in power-- or until our natural systems experience a final, irrevocable collapse. Remember, millions of displaced people are useful to the factory system. They provide cheap labor, and people without land, crammed into cities, stripped of their patrimony, will find it extraordinarily difficult to exert influence over civic affairs.

Fight the powers that be, and their development narrative of "accepted wisdom".