The scarcity of water is getting real, thanks to burgeoning population growth coupled with environmental destruction. Inefficient and irresponsible use of available water is compounding the problem, further. The repercussion of the scarcity is felt deeply across different sectors at various levels, but especially at the local level. The effort should be directed to address this issue at the local level more intensely. In fact, in many cases, water conflict takes different forms, because other discordant factors get clubbed together which worsen the prevailing situation.

In many circumstances, political conflicts over resources such as water are couched as ethnic and religious conflicts, because regions along rivers are inhabited by pluralistic societies belonging to diverse groups, and languages. These people follow different practices. The result is palpable volatile situation prevailing always there that can turn into violent conflict of interests. The conflict based on several belief systems and other factors can easily camouflage water conflicts in such regions as conflicts amongst regions, religions and ethnicities.

To address the water situation at ground level, a number of forums supported by government and non-government organizations, are working overtime. The World Water Forum, launched by World Water Council, has been working tirelessly to generate water awareness by enumerating strategies to deal with the situation.

The World Water Forum has the credit of preparing a platform where local water community, and the policy and decision-makers can meet together to deliberate on different facets of water problems that culminate in the formation of global policies. This has led to global collaboration on water. The forum is organized in close collaboration with the authorities of the hosting country every three years. It has specific objectives which are as follow: to raise the importance of water on the political agenda; to seek a mechanism that will lead to solution of international water issues in the 21st century, to generate political commitment. Every three years, the World Water Forum is organized to generate policies that will direct global political policies in this direction.

Following the tradition, the 4th World Water Forum took place at Mexico City in Mexico from 16th to 22nd March 2006. The theme and focus of the Forum was ‘Local Actions for a Global Challenge’. The organizers of the 4th Forum share the belief that, regardless of their root causes, water related problems have their greatest impacts at the local level. As a result, local actions are key for generating concrete results that, when amalgamated across sectors and regions, will move us closer to meeting the water-related targets set by the Millennium Development Goals, the WSSD Implementation Plan and Local Agenda 21.

Approaching water issues from a local perspective embraces the strong conviction that contemporary societies harbour a tremendous potential for addressing them, provided they are capable and willing to enable local action. Thus, the preparatory process and the activities of the 4th World Water Forum sought to harness the practical, intellectual, financial, and political means to support local action on a global scale. The aim is to reach commitments to remove the barriers for local action and create opportunities for its thriving.

When reflecting on local action, it is important to consider it as a process which is not necessarily individual, small-scale, insular, or parochial. On the contrary, it usually requires multi-stakeholder participation, networking, synergy and collaboration amongst many different types of social actors and policy sectors. Perhaps a good way to proceed in the description of why local action is important in water policy processes is through the deployment of the subsidiarity principle.

Five framework themes have been prepared to address the broader theme: water for growth and development; implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM); water supply and sanitation for all; water management for food and environment and risk management.

A local perspective should recognize the value of new financing schemes that are supportive of local actions. For this, democratic and empowering institutions and political processes are required to embark on capacity building and social learning processes. To address the issue further, the importance of technological innovation and application science cannot be overlooked.