DUSHANBE, December 23, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- On December 21, the 64th session of the UN General Assembly approved the resolution entitled “Midterm Comprehensive/Global Review of the Implementation of International Decade of Actions “Water for Life” that demonstrates that Tajikistan’s initiatives on water problems are of global significance, Asia-Plus has learned from the Permanent Mission of Tajikistan to the United Nations.

The resolution, in particular, notes that water resources are of significant importance for sustainable development, including environmental protection and poverty and starvation reduction and are necessary to improve health and wellbeing of people, the source said.

According to him, the plan of events provides for holding High Level International UN Conference on the midterm comprehensive/global review of the implementation of International Decade of Actions “Water for Life” 2005-2015 in Dushanbe in June 2010 and conducting High-Level Dialogue of UNGA in New York on March 22, 2010 – World Water Day.  Representatives for governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, civil society and private sector will take part in the Dialogue to discuss the implementation of International Decade of Actions “Water for Life” 2005-2015, the source said.

We will recall that on December 23, 2003, the General Assembly proclaimed the period from 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, commencing on World Water Day, March 22, 2005 (resolution 58/217).  It welcomed the decision of the Commission on Sustainable Development to consider water, sanitation and human settlements as the thematic cluster in the first cycle, 2004-2005, and invites the Commission to work within existing resources to identify possible activities and programs in connection with the Decade within the framework of its consideration of that cluster at its twelfth and thirteenth sessions.

The Assembly invited the Secretary-General to take the appropriate steps to organize the activities of the Decade, taking into account the results of the International Year of Freshwater and the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development at its twelfth and thirteenth sessions.  It also called upon the relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, regional commissions and other organizations of the United Nations system to deliver a coordinated response, utilizing existing resources and voluntary funds, to make “Water for Life” a decade for action.  By its resolution 59/228 of December 22, 2004, the Assembly called on the United Nations system to step up efforts to make the International Decade a period for delivering on promises through the use of existing resources and voluntary funds.