UN's
Water Year Is
All Wet,
Distinguishing
Science &
Politics,
Tajik Sponsors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 11 –
The year of
2013 is the
year of many
things,
but according
to the UN
General
Assembly it is
the
International
Year
of Water
Cooperation,
credited to a
request by
Tajikistan in
2010.
Inner City
Press covered
that 2010
hoopla, here.
At
the UN on
Monday Inner
City Press
asked at the
inevitable UN
press
conference
about the
Tajik -
Uzbekistan
water and dam
dispute, and
if the press
conference
panel's
singling
out of
Tajikistan for
praise didn't
constitute
taking sides
in this
dispute. Video
here, from
Minute 22:13.
The
World
Meteorological
Organization's
Paul Egerton
replied that
WMO and
UNESCO, whose
Ana Persic was
also on the
panel, are
both
scientific
organizations.
“The starting
point is to
focus on
scientific and
environmental
issues,” he
said. “There
may be
discussions at
the
high political
level, in the
UN Security
Council or
other venues,
of
the political
issues.”
But
water
cooperation
is, of course,
a “political”
issue.
Witness the
Nile Basin and
an agreement
signed by
seven
countries but
not by Egypt
or Sudan. Can
UNESCO solve
this? The
Security
Council seems
unlikely
to get
involved on
the Nile, much
less the Uzbek
- Tajik
conflict.
Inner
City Press
began by
thanking the
panelists on
behalf of the
Free
UN
Coalition for
Access.
Also on the
panel was
Hungary's
Permanent
Representative
Csaba Korosi,
who told Inner
City Press
that “we as
member states
cannot decide
on behalf of
other member
states to sort
out their
bilateral
problems.”
But
that is
precisely what
the Security
Council under
Chapter VII of
the
UN Charter
purports to
do. Sudan,
North Korea,
Eritrea and
others
would like
what Csaba
Korosi said to
be true. But
it is not.
Csaba
Korosi went on
to say that
the
International
Year of Water
Cooperation is
also “to raise
awareness of
solutions” and
is
about the
“SDGs and the
post 2015
development
agenda.”
But isn't
everything?
Still, his
answer at
least
acknowledged
that these are
political
problems, and
not only
scientific.
Now who will
solve them?
Watch this
site.
, 
