Dr Anthony Turton of the CSIR and member of the SERA Water Task Team. He is also the Chair Gibb-SERA Chair in Integrated Water Resource Management.

Identifying concrete measures to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people in the world without access to sanitation and running water was on high on the agenda at the fourth World Water Forum (WWF) held in Mexico in May this year. SERA Water Task Team member, Dr Anthony Turton and Khungeka Njobe of the CSIR represented South Africa at the event, billed as the biggest gathering of water policy-makers worldwide.

Close to 20 000 people from 140 countries, including 1 395 journalists, experts, NGOs, companies and civil society representatives, participated in over 200 working sessions at the Forum.

Since 1997, the Forums - held once every three years - have become the most important mechanisms for promoting sustainable water management policies worldwide. They are organised collaboratively between the national authorities of host countries and the World Water Council (WWC) - an amalgamation of 323 governmental and intergovernmental water groups, private corporations and non-profit organisations.

International participants at the Conveners Meeting of the 4th World Water Forum.

The theme this year was "Local actions for a global challenge". The challenge for this Forum was to establish mechanisms of cooperation and coordination to transform a global vision into local concrete actions that integrate local knowledge. "The basic intention is to have a global event, with an established integrated agenda for the water sector," explains Turton.

The objective was to come up with concrete measures and indicators that will create the enabling environment to boost progress on the achievement of the MDGs. According to figures released by the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa is ahead of schedule in terms of delivery against these goals. Basic water supply in the country has improved from 59% in 1994 to 81% in 2005, while the backlog in basic sanitation - excluding the bucket system - has been reduced from 48% since democracy to 67% last year.

Freshwater is increasingly the world's most limited resource, accounting for only 0.4% of the world's total water resources. Today, 20% of the world's population has no source of safe drinking water, and 40% lack access to sanitation as basic as a hole in the ground. The tragic result is the death of nearly 4,000 children per day due to water-related disease and illness.

The CSIR became a member of the WWC in 2005, and its role within the Council involves lobbying for the establishment of a strategic development plan for the future. Turton is concerned about the current lack of equity on the Council, which is male dominated and favours the powerful members from three countries - Japan, France and Turkey. "These countries have the most institutional members, control the greatest number of block votes and represent commercial interests. The developing world is grossly under represented," he says.

This was a concern shared by a number of civil-society groups who staged "alternative" or "people's" forums throughout the seven-day official processes. The parallel forums bear testament to the feelings of marginalisation many groups have when it comes to discussion of the quantity, quality, use and overall access to water sources - though some activities at these forums addressed how the two movements could coordinate their efforts and work together towards water policy agendas.

Outcomes of this year's World Water Forum included the launch of a number of new initiatives, and the release of various reports - including two by the WWC. Additionally, the Forum included over 1 500 local actions in a database focusing on networking and sharing action methodologies concerning water issues.

The next WWF will be held in Turkey in 2009.