'Nothing is closer than tomorrow'.

• Author: Tokaev, Kassymzhomart K.
• Position: DevelopmentWatch

History has witnessed many examples where a shortage of water suitable for drinking and irrigation resulted in clashes between people and States, and quite often many thousands of people were forced to abandon their territories because of water problems. Kazakhstan, a country primarily composed of deserts and semi-arid regions, knows the price of pure water better than anybody. According to United Nations data, Kazakhstan belongs to a category of countries with very low availability of water resources per capita. By the year 2025, the situation might deteriorate further still.

The Government of Kazakhstan, which fully shares the concern of the international community about the present and future situation regarding access to safe sources of drinking water, considers the initiative important and appropriate in light of the Johannesburg Summit. We support the judgement of UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai that "the subject of water was probably the most successful of the Summit". In this connection, we welcome the initiatives of the European Union, Japan and the United Sates, as well as of several regional banks, offering substantial financial investment for the development of the water sector in the developing and least developed countries of Africa and Asia. We are also looking forward to the results of the forthcoming third World Water Forum, to be held in Kyoto in March 2003. We believe that the initiative of Japan to call such a representative international conference will serve as an important element in the process of finding solutions to w ater problems.

Destiny decreed that Kazakhstan would be endowed with huge reserves of natural and especially energy resources, which are under the non-renewable category and are the property of all future generations, the general well-being of whom will depend upon, among other things, the skill of our generation in investing the income from sales of petroleum and natural gas. Understanding this, President Nursultan Nazarbaev, in a decree of 23 August 2000, established the "National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan".

The purpose of the Fund is to maintain the stable social and economic development of the country, accumulate financial assets for future generations of citizens, and reduce the effects of unfavourable external factors on Kazakhstan's economy. As of today, the Fund's assets total about $2 billion.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, which ended its work in early September 2002 in Johannesburg (South Africa), has, in effect, confirmed once again a well-known truth, which to my mind is most deeply...