being through addressing the challenges in water management, including the need for increasing water quality "The OIC attaches utmost importance to the issue, which is reflected in the first OIC Ministerial gathering on Water in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, in 2009 where the OIC Member States discussed the issues related to the water supply and elaborated on the importance of enhancing interaction, technology sharing, formulation of concrete proposals to tackle the water issues, specifically those related to water pollution," Ihsanoglu said in the message, according to a press release issued in Jeddah yesterday. The United Nations Millennium Declaration and the 2002 Sustainable Development Summit addressed the water issues on a global scale. The decade between 2005 and 2015 was declared as the international decade for action, "Water for Life" by the UNGA. Nevertheless, studies showed that 85 percent of the world's population lives on the droughty line. More than 1 billion people living in arid and semiarid parts of the world have either no or little access to renewable water sources. In the meantime, the world's population is growing by about 80 million each year, which means demand for freshwater is increasing by 64 billion cubic meters annually. In this backdrop, managing water resources properly towards ensuring availability of clean water to all has been the focus of all water related activities by the international community. Water quality and management of water resources contributes directly or indirectly to achieving all eight Millennium Development Goals. "Indeed, it is universally agreed that water is the source of life. The holy Quran asserts that water is the sole basis for the emergence of life. It also has a prominent place in Islamic traditions. In fact, Islam prohibits waste and pollution of water and call for respecting the environment," the OIC Secretary General said.
