Khalistan Calling newsletter
dated March 19, 2003The three million strong diaspora Sikhs, unlike their 21 million compatriots captive in India, are free and prosperous and they are determined - as they believe it is their destiny and pray for it every day;
Raj Karayga Khalsa; Sikhs will rule - to create a sovereign, democratic, egalitarian Sikh buffer state of KHALISTAN in South Asia, stretching from the Jumna river on the East, to the Pakistan border on the West, China on the Northeast and Kashmir on the North, playing its God-given role of a granary for countries of Central Asia and acting as a 'bridge of prosperity' between Central and South Asia.* Please E-mail or FAX newsletter
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THIRD WORLD WATER FORUM IN JAPAN
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LESSONS FOR PUNJAB
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NEVER FORGET THE SYL CANAL CONSPIRACY
BY
Dr. Amarjit Singh
Khalistan Affairs Centre
956-National Press Building, Washington DC 20045 USA
Tel: 202-637-9210 :: Fax: 202-637-9211
INTERNET SITE INFORMATION:-
Web Site:
www.khalistan-affairs.orgE-mail Address:
Washington DC: March 18, 2003:
The third World Water Forum, (organized by the World Water Council) opened on Sunday in JAPAN to address various aspects of the worldwide water crisis like the one we Sikhs are facing, in Indian occupied Punjab, which will be greatly aggravated if the SYL (Sutlej-Yumna Link) canal is allowed to be resurrected. Read about SYL canal issue at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc01152003.htm <The third World Water Forum, (an international conference held once every three years which addresses various aspects of the world's water crisis) opened on March 18, 2003, in Kyoto, Osaka and other Japanese cities. The conference, which runs through March 23, is organized once every three years by the World Water Council, a body comprised of researchers, in close cooperation with the host nation's government. About 10,000 researchers, representatives of the United Nations, governments, companies, nongovernmental organizations and other concerned parties are participating. A ministerial-level conference with about 170 countries attending, with about 350 sectional meetings, is also takmg place. We hope the Punjab government has not ignored, or forgotten about, this important international conference, as is their wont, and has sent some observors to the meet.
In the words of William Cosgrove, former vice president of the World Bank, 'The water crisis does certainly exist, with this being a crisis of management.' This is based on the belief that poor management systems and skills (a la Punjab) aggravate the problem, stressing the need for more effective and comprehensive approaches to water management. A recent United Nations report indicates that the average water supply per person around
the world will decrease by a third over the next decade and a half. With war in Iraq possibly only days away, a leading delegate to the Third World Water Forum declared at the opening session that, providing clean water is more important than the looming conflict. "The water crisis and the discussions that will take place at the forum will have a greater effect on humankind in the 21st century than the current Middle East crisis," said council vice president William Cosgrove. "Increasing scarcity, competition and arguments over water will dramatically change the way we manage water resources. Innovative ways of using this precious commodity have to be found," said Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, president of the World Water Council.Because of drought, population growth and other phenomena - theft by the states of Haryana and Rajasthan where Punjab is concerned - about one-third of the world's people, primarily those in developing countries, struggle with water shortages. About 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, with 2 million children dying annually from water-related diseases. In the dry regions of Northern Africa, young girls make two-to three-hour treks each way to draw water from wells. On the Loess Plateau in China, a vast stretch of land where rain seldom falls, people with buckets gather to scoop up the precious liquid at the appearance of even a small puddle. Frequent outbreaks of fierce flooding caused by abnormal rainfall and other trends are the flip side of the coin, with around 100 million people each year becoming victims of such tragedies.
The World Water Council, which is sponsoring the forum, estimates that 1.4 billion people do not have access to safe water and that 2.3 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Another 7 million people die each year because of water-borne diseases, the council estimates. In India according to the UN's Human Development Report-2002, 69% of the population (over 700 milllion people) do not have adequate sanitation facilities.
According to the March 18, 2003, Japan Times, participants in the third World Water Forum are takeing advantage of the opportunity for constructive dialogue as they strive for lasting progress in easing the disputes linked to international rivers. Global warming and other climate changes, excessive development and deforestation, poverty, inferior levels of education and sanitation and other problems which have their roots in the water crisis are also being discussed in an effort to pool and mobilize its wisdom to improve often appalling situations. The U.N. Millenium Summit in the year 2000 established goals of cutting by half the proportion of the global population that does not have access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2015.
Two key international goals of securing safe water and basic sanitation are closely interconnected and are therefore, being addressed together at the Third World Water Forum. These goals are of particular interest to the people of Punjab where non-riparian Rajasthan and Haryana states unlawfully syphon more river water than the amount allotted to riparian Punjab through which the rivers flow.
The
relationship between water and sanitation is one of the 18 themes which were taken up from Sunday with the opening of the World Water Forum and is of particular interest to the Punjab. "Without a strong emphasis on improving the sanitation situation, the full benefits of improved access to water will not be achieved,'' said Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF who was speaking at a session on the issue of water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water pollution according to the Japan Times. Bellamy also pointed to the need for separate toilets for girls in schools, especially in those nations - like the Punjab - that do not allow for religious and cultural reasons the sharing of such facilities by boys and girls.That restriction often means that it is the girls who have to give up going to school.``Safe water, separate sanitation facilities for girls and hygiene promotion are as essential to schools as reading, writing and arithmetic,'' Bellamy said. Something which can be implemented cheaply and quickly in the Punjab. Are you listening Mr. Punjab Chief Minister or are you in deep slumber as usual?Other experts said that even though the provision of safe drinking water and basic sanitation has been linked in the U.N. Millennium summit goals, there are cultural factors at work in many developing nations - speacially in India - that make discussion of sanitation involving the treatment of human waste much more difficult than talking about improved water quality. India is the worse example of this shyness where policymakers find it easier to talk about and propose access to water supply for the public rather than the building of sewage systems to help the horrible sanitation situation. See Khalistan Calling dated January 08, 2003, headlined, "Sixty five million Indians living in cities have no toilets or clean drinking water like their 700 million rural brethern," at: (>
http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc01082003.htm <) At a separate session experts indicated that seemingly simple solutions could have a huge impact on promoting hygiene and better health.Val Curtis of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine summarized past research on hygiene promotion that showed that washing hands with soap after the handling of feces reduced the occurrence of diarrhea by 47 percent, more than improved water quality and quantity, hygiene promotion and sanitation. On a global scale, the simple and cost-free campaign to encourage hand washing with soap could save the lives of up to 1 million children who would normally die from diarrhea-related diseases.
Dibalok Singha, the WSSCC's coordinator for Bangladesh, said changing the consciousness of the poor went a long way in improving their sanitation situation. He said a study of a small slum of Dhaka found that the residents, "were resigned to the fact that disease was a part of life.'' Once the slum dwellers were instructed how to improve their situation, hand washing became standard practice and open defecation in the slum was completely abandoned.
According to the Japan Times, French President Chirac said in a video message at the opening ceremony of the conference that, "In 20 years, nearly two-thirds of the world's inhabitants may face water shortages. As host of the upcoming G-8 summit, France has made sustainable development and the future of the African continent the priorities for the meeting." "Water is a key issue," he said.
"We are at the end of a long journey with this water forum," said Halifa Drammeh, deputy director and U.N. Environment Program expert on African water issues. "This is a very happy ending, because water issues in Africa are now on the political agenda."Despite these problems, delegates noted with satisfaction that water is now firmly on the political agenda of industrialized nations.
The opening ceremony on Sunday was attended by Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako, former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, chairman of the forum organizing committee, and other dignitaries.
We hope the Captain Amrinder Singh government in the Punjab will sieze the moment and share the sense of crisis about the SYL (Sutlej-Yumna Link) canal in particular and water in general and take simple steps as brought out at the Water Forum in Japan to educate the younger generation attending rural and urban schools about washing hands so that
diarrhea-related diseases are banished from the homeland.While improving the situation in our schools etc., we Sikhs should be vigilant as we cannot, should not and must not allow our lethargy or these crafty Brahmins in New Delhi to make a fool out of us as they did when they built the useless Bhakra Nangal dam which serves non-riparion states of Haryana and Rajasthan at Punjab's cost. We should never allow a situation in which we are at the mercy of the malice of a coterie of crafty fundamentalist amoral BJP Brahmins and, we and our children will be at their mercy, if we allowed any more of Punjab's river water to be syphoned, nay stolen, via the defunct SYL canal which ditch should, and must remain, an abandoned ditch only as it is today.
KHALISTAN ZINDABAD
- LONG LIVE KHALISTANKhalistan Calling
weekly newsletter can be viewed on the South Asia Tribune site at: > http://www.satribune.com >by clicking on the 'SIKH CORNER" on the Front Page. It can also be seen at: >
http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc03192003.htm <. The above newsletter has been published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI KALA, Issue of March 19 - 25, 2003 :: Vol. 19 : No. 12. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available on the Khalistan Affairs Centre website at: ( > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc03122003.htm <) The Khalistan Calling newsletter was also published in the second week of March 2003, in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, and Akal Guardian, Toronto-based SANJH SAVERA, Calgary-based SIKH VIRSA and numerous other Punjabi/English weekly and monthly publications which cater to the three million strong Sikh diaspora in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia.Thank you for browsing
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