What's New @ Ramsar

New magazine inaugurated for water issues

World Water Watch launched

A new magazine has been launched to track developing issues in the global water crisis and advocate the sustainable use of this precious commodity.  Entitled World Water Watch: the Magazine of the Freshwater Environment, the publication is planned for four issues a year -- the first appeared in January 2000, and the second, a special issue on the impending Second World Water Forum and Ministerial Conference in the Hague, appeared in early March.

Editor Geoffrey Weston set the tone of the second issue in his editorial: "There is something surreal about a group of well-dressed people at the dawn of the 21st century taking their working papers out of expensive briefcases in a relatively luxurious building in one of the world's most properous cities -- to make decisions about water management for the next 100 years that could decide the life-or-death fate of countless millions of people living at the edge of survival. In dramatic contrast to the ministers assembling in The Hague for the Second World Water Forum this month, many of these millions may have to walk kilometres in searing heat to fetch and carry the water on which their very existence depends. Think of THEM, ministers, as you pursue your deliberations and consume your routine meals, the like of which such people will never be able to eat even once in their lives".

In addition to a number of pieces setting the stage for the Hague meeting, other articles cover the changing Dutch views of water management; the complicated South Eastern Anatolian Project; the aftermath of the 1999 cyclone that hit Orissa, India; the battle against mercury pollution in Sweden; threats to Lake Tsarasaotra, Madagascar; seasonal wetlands in Kenya; and "Death of a River" on the Tisza River cyanide disaster. Moreover, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Waters Campaign (both of which are financially supporting the publication of World Water Watch) have update articles on their recent activities. In all, the 48-page second issue is well designed, well edited, and well illustrated, with a wide range of water-related content.

Subscriptions to the magazine are available for one year (4 issues) at US$ 27, £16 sterling, Euro 23.50, 45 Deutschmarks, or 300 Austrian shillings, from Arquus Publishing Company, Klaus Pahlich, Kefedergrundgasse 5/H2, A-1210 Vienna, Austria (fax +43 1 256 8815, e-mail arquus@nextra.at). Payment is welcomed by cheque, VISA, or EuroCard/MasterCard.

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 25 April 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.