Increasing public information in water resource planning

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends awareness creation programmes, including mobilizing commitment and support at all levels and initiating global and local action to promote such programmes.

Article 5(i) of the Draft Protocol on Water and Health (1999) to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses (1992) and International Lakes, states: Access to information and public participation in decision-making concerning water and health are needed, inter alia, in order to enhance the quality and the implementation of the decisions, to build public awareness of issues, to give the public the opportunity to express its concerns and to enable public authorities to take due account of such concerns. Such access and participation should be supplemented by appropriate access to judicial and administrative review of relevant decisions.