CHIANG MAI - Leaders of Asia-Pacific countries on Monday agreed to put water on each of their national agendas.
Asia-Pacific leaders pose for photos at the Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Chiang Mai city on Monday. (Photo by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)
They said in the "Chiang Mai Declaration" released after the Asia-Pacific Water Summit that the issue would grow in importance and be a policy priority. They pledged to build regional resilience to natural disasters and share technical skills on management of the resource.
Better preparations for disaster threats were needed due to rapidly growing development in the region.
The summit, which ended on Monday, gathered more than 40 countries and international organisations.
The leaders warned in the meeting that fierce competition for water could trigger conflict unless nations cooperate to share the diminishing resource.
From Central to Southeast Asia, regional efforts to secure water have sparked tensions between neighbours reliant on rivers to sustain booming populations.
Breakneck urbanisation, climate change and surging demand from agriculture have heaped pressure on scarce water supplies, while the majority of people in Asia-Pacific still lack access to safe water despite strong economic growth.
"There could be a fight over resources," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra cautioned in an address to the forum.
"No country in this region can handle these challenges alone," she said.
Asian nations need to plough an estimated US$380 billion (11,000 billion baht) into water and sanitation systems in the decade to 2020 if they are to achieve water security, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah warned the forum.
The "vital undertaking" comes against a backdrop of competition that "could lead to international disputes", he cautioned.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cited a water-sharing treaty between her nation and India over the Ganges river as an example of successful water diplomacy.
"Only judicious management of access to water resources" will prevent conflict, she said, adding that low-lying Bangladesh has around 30 million people exposed to rising sea levels.
The Asian Development Bank last month warned that nearly two-thirds of people in Asia-Pacific have no clean, piped water at home despite the region's strong growth, blaming poor management and a lack of investment in infrastructure.
Climate change and environmental damage are also posing unpredictable threats to the region's water supply, with glaciers that feed rivers in retreat and once-pristine waterways polluted with waste.