InterAction Council, Tokyo
31 May 2001
Clinton, Fox, Zedillo, Chretien, Brundtland among 20 former leaders urging greater effort to avert looming water crisis
Former heads of government from around the world today agreed at a meeting in Canada to establish a new panel to help fill a serious void in leadership related to global water issues.
Saying that “international water leadership is virtually nonexistent,” the retired leaders say the panel will work to elevate the issue’s political prominence in an effort to avert a looming “water crisis.”
The 20 members of the InterAction Council attending this year’s three-day annual meeting in Quebec City included former US President Bill Clinton, former Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, and former prime ministers Yasuo Fukuda (Japan) and Gro Brundtland (Norway). Co-chairing the meeting: former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.
At the meeting’s conclusion, the group urged a new international water ethic and offered today’s political office-holders some 21 recommendations for world water management moving forward.
Full news release: click here
Coverage summary: click here
Example coverage, by Agence France Presse: click here