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Press releases, Paris, France, 12/04/2001
 The Water Resources Advisory Committee's third meeting focuses on serving and supplying water to disadvantaged neighborhoods
From March 31 through April 2, 2001, the third meeting of the Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the presence of Gérard Mestrallet and Philippe Brongniart, respectively Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Suez Executive Board.
WRAC is an international committee of experts whose purpose is to study the principal water resource-related issues representing one of the most important challenges in coming decades. These issues are sustainable development, globalization, and the appropriate relations to maintain among the various shareholders.
This meeting focused on serving and supplying water to disadvantaged neighborhoods and took place at a concession site of Ondeo, the new name of Suez's Water Division. The location gave concrete aspect to WRAC's work, whether through presentations on Suez's activity in the southern cone, direct contacts with the management of Aguas Argentinas, Safege, and the members of WRAC, or through field visits, particularly to poorer neighborhoods recently connected to drinking water sources by Aguas Argentinas.
Suez is a pioneering group in this field thanks to Ondeo services, with its genuine know-how in providing water and wastewater services in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the various countries where it is active (e.g. South Africa, Morocco, and Bolivia). Partnerships established in these neighborhoods generally involve at least one local NGO which plays the role of mediator with the local population.
The five themes discussed during the working sessions of this third meeting's had been previously identified at the Macao meeting in September 2000. They reflected such major issues for the world's water supply in coming years as integrated management of water resources, dams, water transfers, irrigation, and the appropriate role of NGOs.
The objective of these working groups is to reach concrete recommendations that the group can implement.
On April 3, the meeting concluded with the inauguration of an underground river, in the presence of representatives of Argentine cabinet ministries, Gérard Mestrallet, and various WRAC members. The underground duct had been built by Aguas Argentinas 30 meters below the surface to deliver water from the San Martin plant via pipes 3.5 meters in diameter over a 15 kilometer route to supply the Buenos Aires suburbs with over 36,000 cubic meters of water per hour.
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