KYOTO -- With war in Iraq possibly only days away, a leading delegate to the Third World Water Forum declared at the opening session that providing clean water is more important than the looming conflict.
Delegates also vowed to use the conference to enact programs that meet the United Nations' goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide without access to safe drinking water.
But the extent of private sector investment in and control of water resources was expected to once again dominate discussions between delegates and nongovernmental organizations, as it did at the Second World Water Forum, held in The Hague three years ago.