G7 water coalition tackles crises

TURIN, Italy (AFP) — The G7 is setting up a water coalition to tackle the global water crisis, which is being exacerbated by climate change, France’s ecological transition minister said Monday.

The Group of Seven industrialized nations meeting for two-day talks in Turin, Italy will commit in a final statement Tuesday to “work on the water resource issues,” minister Christophe Bechu told Agence France-Presse.

“It’s the first time there’s a coalition dedicated to working on it in the G7 format,” he said.

The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US.

The coalition is expected to be tasked with seeking solutions in areas from pollution, sanitation and food, to disasters like floods and droughts, as well as intensifying political focus on the water crisis in general.

Environmentalists say changing the way the planet manages its water resources is a key part in adapting to a heating climate.

The world has lost around 85 percent of its wetlands over the past 300 years, according to United Nations figures, and some four billion people globally already face water scarcity for at least one month a year, according to the US-based World Resources Institute.

Experts urge governments to invest in the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems, making sure people in cities have access to good quality water and are protected from floods, and making food production more resilient to rising seas, floods and droughts.