By DPA
Tokyo : The first Asia-Pacific Water Summit opened Monday in the southern Japanese city of Beppu, with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda expressing hopes that it will give new impetus to environmental discussions at the next Group of Eight (G8) summit in July 2008.
The two-day summit invited 300 government and industry leaders and environmental experts from 49 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss water-related problems and solutions amid global warming.
As participants were expected to talk about water shortages, disasters, sanitation and other related issues at 10 separate sessions, Fukuda said he hoped to take “enormous power and wisdom” from the summit to the G8 meet to be held in northern Japanese town of Toyako in July 2008.
According to the steering committee of the summit, some 700 million people live without access to safe drinking water, while 1.9 billion people are without hygienic toilet facilities in the region.