Access to fresh water and international trade law

Summary: "Coping with the consequences of climate change, population increase and agricultural and industrial development; How to organize trade in fresh water and efficient delivery of water services under WTO trade law in order to meet UN MDG 7, target 3”.

Up to day already more then one billion people suffer from a lack of access to fresh water on the global level. At least until the year 2050 the demand for fresh water on our planet will increase very rapidly due to accelerated population growth and industrial and agricultural development. On top of this comes the problem of climate change which, acting as an accelorator, is preddicted to enhance severely already existing water shortages in some regions of the world and initiate such problems in many others. lack of access to fresh water thus rapidly becomes one of the biggest problems global community has to deal with. The United Nations already made an urgent wake - up call by formulating as one of the Millennium Development Goals to 'halve by the year 2015, the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.' In this respect, it is submitted at present that WTO trade law provides a suitable framework under which effective (trade) solutions can be found. Hence, the qustion before us will be how to effectively organise future (sustainable) trade in fresh water as well as the delivery of effective water services under WTO trade Law in order to meet MDG 7, target 3 on time.