13/04/2005: The 13 th
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD 13) is underway from 11/04/05 to 22/04/05
at the United Nations, New York, United States
of America where South Africa's government
and civil society are joining hands in an
effort to influence the world's sustainable
development programme.
At the end of its second day at the United
Nations the South African delegation remained
optimistic that it's efforts at CSD 13 will
deliver positive results by the end of the
second week. “We now have a common position
with other developing nations about what needs
to be done to achieve the Millenium Development
Goals” said the leader of the delegation and
Director General of the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry, Mike Muller.
CSD 13 is an intergovernmental forum intended
to review the implementation of the world's
progress in implementing WSSD outcomes. The
first week of CSD 13 will be an official's
meeting, which will culminate in the distribution
of the Chairperson's 1 st draft negotiating
text. The second week will focus on negotiations
on the text and the Ministerial segment that
will deal with overarching themes of meeting
Millennium Development Goals targets as it
relates to water, sanitation and human settlement.
More than 75 Ministers occupying a variety
of responsibilities in their countries is
expected to be CSD 13 over the next two weeks.
These include Ministers of Finance, Trade,
Environment, Housing, Water, Development,
etc. CSD 13 is expected to emerge with policies
and practical measures that will accelerate
implementation of targets set in relation
to water, sanitation and human settlement.
The South African team currently in New York
include senior government officials and leaders
from labour, local government, civil society
and business. Expected to attend in the second
week is included Ministers of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism, Water Affairs and Forestry,
Housing and Finance, Western Cape's MEC of
Environmental Affairs and Development Planning,
Tasneem Essop and Johannesburg City's Executive
Mayor, Amos Masondo (also serving as Chairperson
of SALGA and President of the international
local governments network, ICLEI).
“At the end the world community should be
united in its course towards targets of halving
by 2015 the proportion of people without access
to safe drinking water and basic sanitation,
establishing an integrated water resource
management and water efficiency systems and
significantly improving the lives of at least
100 million slum dwellers by 2020” further
added Muller.
