Water stress tends to be analysed and treated separately by public policy. It is approached related to food secutiry with concern for floods and scarcity and contamination on the fields. It is dealt with quantity and quality-related diseases in the health sector. Conservationists demand resource management to preserve freshwater ecosystems. Development issues arise public concern when a dam threats a community's traditions' survival. As Tom Le Quesne pointed out during the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Development and the Environment session at Houses of Parlaiment on WWD 2011, water is a resource under threat and a problem that concerns us all.
 
Petra Kjell of Progressio reminded us all that "water is life" and in order to reduce poverty and stop the chain of events that occur when water supply cannot be guaranteed, we first have to identify what scarcity means in practice: if it's physical scarcity or economic scarcity we're dealing with. This will then lead to a more efficient design of piblic policy.
 
By going directly to the people we can get a good picture of what the problem looks like at the local level. Statistic and scientific studies aside, experience and perception will let us know what reality looks like at the field. It will put a light into how people deal with water supply when they are limitted by private water sources, lack of or insufficient infrastructure, political conflict or gender tasks. Women and girls in Latin America normally have to walk miles carrying water on ther backs to prepare meals for their family, wash their clothes, prepare their baths. An average of 9 hours per day are dedicated to carry 40 k of water. The implications are enormous. They are more exposed to crime, disease and poor health. They more often skip school or work to keep the water flowing at home.
 
On the other hand, climate change is setting a whole new face to water problems across the globe. Just as development programs reach communities in different ways, and have themselves completely different outcomes, communities are confronted by the climate crisis with new and different challenges at the local level that most of the times are beyond their capacities to respond. They find themselves without the proper knowledge or preparation to deal with the phenomena. They lack resources to face the threats. They find themselves in the middle of fractured governmental policy that is only focused on attending the sector's needs. For Ramisetty Murali, regional convenor for FANSA, it is very simple. He stressed the need to design plans that support resilience of local life support systems in order to face the challenges set by climate change, and bring together decision makers, planners, implementators and civil society, to have a wide display of strategies to face the water scarcity and crisis. He also mentioned that besides strengthening local capacity and infrastructure, cooperation through networks at a local, regional and intertnational level are needed. 
 
World Water Day 2011 has brought FAN's Governing Council and Communications Officers together at London, precisely when the theme for this year's WWD is water for cities. It is easy to think that the water crisis has almost only striken developing countries, or the very vast regions hit by natural disasters. But the reality is that big cosmopolite cities around the world also have growing water issues. Just as Fiona Bruce MP alerted us at the Westminster Walks for Water pre-meeting, "we take water for granted". Sheltered by our sewage systems and tap water systems, we never have to face scarcity and think of the problems related to water around the globe ... not until they strike us at home. But we forget that not so long ago the same cities we live in had no running water nor sewage, and that our grandparents had to spend some of their dayly time bringing water to the bathroom and kitchen. What would it be like if it was you who had to carry 40k of water for 9 hours every day so that the other members of your family could so much as drink coffee?
 
As was said at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Development and the Environment session, water usually comes for free, which makes it hard for people in cities or high income countries to raise awareness of the problems faced throughout the world. For this to happen putting a value to water and reconnecting people to water on a daily basis becomes a priority, as well as raising water and putting it at the heart of institutions and policy. But we also have to place local knowledge and benefits in the process, as Batermy Tsafack Tagny of ANEW commented, connect experiences at the local level and pay attention to spontaneous local solutions, as Murali suggested, and change the mindset to set a common goal and walk together towards it, as Mark Butler from Tearfund emphazied.
 
It was nice to see familiar faces during the sessions, but we have to stop preaching to the choir. Other decision makers have to listen to people at the grassroot level to hear out their own stories: they will find out that what they have to say goes beyond cold numbers and actually has a human face. They have demanding needs but can also offer insight into what solutions could be based on, and suggest what they have come up with to make up for insufficient and ineficient freshwater and sanitation supply. Government and planners and implementors will find answers among the people.