Urban water issues are going to be the most important subject in the 21st century, says Andras Szollosi-Nazy, Rector of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, on Wednesday.
Addressing about 50 science experts from the globe, at the opening of the Global Citywater Futures Summit in Delft, The Netherlands, he said urban water situations were the result of global water changes.
"If we think there are problems now, it is only the tip of the iceberg, since there are more water related problems in sight, with population figures doubling in some countries and pressures from climate change.
"The water cycle is changing and this is enough indication that there are more problems ahead if water managers and planners do not act now, to redesign their tool kits," he said.
Mr Szollosi-Nazy noted that in the past planners and water managers used to develop tool kits for 40 years and beyond, but the situation demands that short term projections and developments are made to suit the changing trends.
"Long term projections are no longer necessary, because the trends keep changing within short circles," he told participants at the three- day summit.
The summit brought together water managers, urban planners, regulators, non-governmental organisations and donor agencies.
It also attracted policy makers from the Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow's Cities Health (SWITCH) to discuss and share ideas and experiences with the global network of scientists.
SWITCH is an action research programme, implemented and co-funded by the European Union and a cross-disciplinary team of 33 partners from 15 countries around the world.
SWITCH aims at bringing about a paradigm shift in urban water management away from existing ad hoc solutions towards a more coherent and integrated approach. The vision of SWITCH is for sustainable urban water management in the "City of the Future".
To achieve this goal SWITCH aims to improve the scientific basis for the development and management of urban water systems, to ensure that they are robust, flexible and adaptable to a range of future global change pressures.
Professor Kala Vairavamoorthy, SWITCH Scientific Director said it was quite unfortunate that most scientific research had remained on the shelf without implementation
"We have to shift from this system, by making sure that all innovations are implemented so that the best can be adopted by city planners and policy makers," he said.
Prof. Vairavamoorthy observed that although water is life, it is also the number one killer with a lot of people dying from water related diseases each year.
Sanitation seems to be a forgotten part of the Millennium Development Goal, he said.