The Director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, today inaugurated Thematic Week 7 “Water Economy and Finance: Water Markets and Financial Solutions for Emerging Countries”, within the framework of the Water Tribune of the Zaragoza 2008 International Exhibition. Ana Leiva was accompanied by the mayor of Zaragoza, Juan Alberto Belloch, and the mayor of Huesca, Fernando Elboj.

This is one of the ten weekly sessions of debates on the most pressing problems around the axis of Expo Zaragoza “Water and Sustainable Development”. It is expected that in these debates between experts and water managers around the world, solutions will be presented and consensus processes will be developed, with the aim of disseminating knowledge and generating documents with specific proposals.

Thematic Week 7 of the Water Tribune takes place from today until Friday, August 1, 2008, co-organized by the Biodiversity Foundation. More than 200 experts and nearly 40 speakers and panelists from different countries – including Australia, Canada, the United States, Chile, Mexico, Israel and India – will discuss multiple experiences in water transactions. Based on consensus, the adoption of a key message document on the most feasible ways to implement this novel instrument in public water management will be sought.

The cycle of sessions – with an open format, so that those who do not come to Zaragoza can give their opinion through a weblog – begins with the presentation of international issues. During the first day, an analysis of the problems associated with the use of water in the world will be made: the emphasis will be placed on water scarcity, with the conflicts and rivalries that the phenomenon entails; in the need to adopt new public policies and institutional management, as well as in solutions that adequately respond to present and future conditions of scarcity and conflict.

Tomorrow, the presentations and subsequent discussion will focus on water policy initiatives and institutional changes that allow a more efficient use of this limited resource, in a framework of uncertainty. The third day will be dedicated to reviewing the experiences of implementing water markets, the comprehensive environmental perspective of this practice and, in general, the incorporation of economic externalities into the price. The fourth day will be addressed, among other issues, to analysing the growing scarcity of water and the role that water markets are having and have in managing drought situations and in relieving pressures on aquatic ecosystems in Spain. Finally, on the fifth day, different successful case studies linked to water finance in emerging countries will be presented.