President | World Water Council
Mr. Loïc Fauchon is President of the World Water Councilsince 2018 after having previously served two mandates from 2005 to 2012.
After graduatinginpolitical sciences in 1970, he worked as a civil servant for French local authorities including as Secretary General to the Mayor of the City of Marseille. He was Mayor of the town of Trets from 1989 to 1997.
From 1991 to 2019, he was successively General Director, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Water Supply Company of Marseille (SEM),a leading group of 15 companies.
He founded the disaster relief NGO “Trans-Sahara Caravanes Sans Frontières”, as well as “Water help”, SEM’s official humanitarian response program. He is a member of several international and non-governmental organizations, and the High-Level Expert and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP).
He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 2003.
- Water has an intrinsic relationship with COVID-19 pandemic. How is World Water Council considering water as a top human development priority for hygiene responses and containing the spread of pandemics?
The greatest protective measure against epidemics such as COVID19 and many other water-related diseases is to wash your hands with soap and disinfectant.
And to wash your hands properly you need safe and accessible water, near your home or your school or at hospital.
And the international community, which had somewhat forgotten this, realized the urgency of accelerating access to water for all. Not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for health and economic reasons.
Access to water for all is not just one SDG among 17 others. It is not an abstract concept; it is the main objective to be achieved for the sustainable and equitable development of Man and Nature.
- What is the main challenge for the next 20 years according to the World Water Council?
Water security remains more than ever the challenge of the 21st century. Securing water resources on the scale of a continent and the planet, for today but also for tomorrow, is an essential challenge.
Water security is a key concept.
We all know that water security is a daily imperative, a constant reality, a need for all, and a right for all.
The mission of the World Water Council is to put water at the top of the political agenda so that water security is a reality for everyone, everywhere and for everyone.
We need to work on a more precise definition of water security, on the detection of good practices and on recommendations to progress.
It means “producing” more water and, at the same time, “consuming” less.
The reason being despite our constant efforts, the demand for water is growing faster than the supply. In concrete terms, this means:
generating more resources by pumping deeper when necessary, storing water, interconnecting dams, transferring water over long distances, improving treatment and supply.
But at the same time, it is essential to control water use and save water: manage our resources correctly, use modern leak detection techniques, put an end to the enormous waste in agriculture, and desalinate seawater or reuse wastewater.
It is a question of moving towards sharing resources while avoiding waste and educating the younger generation on the importance of saving resources.
On the one hand, we need to rely on technology, especially digital technology, to implement all the solutions we are familiar with, and on the other hand, know how to reduce collective and individual waste through a change in policy approach.
- Ecosystems are getting altered due to climate change, underpinned by water to a large extent. What are your views regarding this?
Since the beginning of times, climate has always known variations through storms, typhoons and tidal waves, or dreadful lack of water. Thirty years ago, great droughts in Africa caused millions of deaths. The lack of water often causes more human damage than excess of water.
This requires preventing water-related disasters. The climate must not be blamed for everything it must not be the scapegoat of human mistakes.
The errors are caused by men’s mistakes when building in riverbeds or along seashores. When rivers flood or when the sea rages, we say it is the climate. No, this has always happened.
The evolution of climate will perhaps worsen disasters. Nature’s wrath has always been, and we must respect nature. We must not always dominate it at all time and develop prevention and resilience policies.
Water availability is primarily linked to population growth, but also growing urbanization and the rise in living standards, both of which lead to significant increases in water consumption.
But if we must secure water for humans, we must, at the same time, secure water for nature.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, a new imperative has been added. Humans have gradually understood that they must conserve part of their water for Nature, to enhance biodiversity and protect wildlife and ecosystems.
Bringing sustainability and equity, requires the wisdom of not using all our resources immediately and to preserve the balances and ecosystems that have an incredible capacity to adapt and that will allow future generations to find their own solutions, to provide their own answers.
This is a common interest. Water is the life insurance of the planet. It is the first element that we need with air. With no water or air for men, humanity is doomed.
- The World Water Council is organizing the 9th World Water Forum under the theme ‘water security for peace and development’ and is expected to bring diverse stakeholders across the globe. What are your expectations?
The World Water Council, notably through the organization of previous World Water Forums, has made a major contribution to making water a global political priority. It is now time to translate our words into concrete responses.
This is the challenge that Senegal and the World Water Council will take up by co-organizing the 9th World Water Forum in Dakar.
It will take place for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is addressed to all countries, to the entire international community, because our futures are linked, and we are aiming to a planet where water issues are paramount.
The purpose of the World Water Forum is to bring together the main political actors, professionals, NGOs, funders, and international organizations, sharing experiences and know-how, to further contribute and facilitate access to water and sanitation.
The World Water Forum is a unique meeting. It is not an international conference or a United Nations session, but 20,000 delegates who come from all over the world. They represent the water family and share their experience.
- Can you explain us what are the five basic needs that States must guarantee to their populations?
Water, energy, food, health and education are the five basic needs of mankind and they cannot be separated, like the five fingers of a hand. They form the “Five Fingers Alliance” concept and Nature is the palm of this hand.
Each sector has been working alone in the past. But according to us they are all interlinked.
Water and Energy:Because we need water for energy and energy for water but also, for food. Food self-sufficiency is going to be one of the greatest questions of this century because of population growth.
There is also health. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of hand washing to protect yourself.
And education: A world with no education is a world damned to intellectual scarcity. There is nothing worse.
It is the major goal of the next decades. Meet the human needs and respect the balance of ecosystems.
These are the conditions to provide development that we want to be sustainable and, above all, equitable between all of us.
