Slovenia seeks better water management

Space Daily via UPI: Slovenia, which has some of most abundant fresh water supplies in Europe, should develop new strategies to preserve and protect them, ministers said this week. Slovenian President Borut Pahor, Foreign Minister Karel Erjavec, Agriculture and Environment Minister Dejan Zidan and European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik were among those making calls for better management of the country's water resources Monday at a Ljubljana conference.

Also present was climatologist Lucka Kajfez Bogataj, head of the Center for Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Ljubljana and a member of an international climate change panel that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

"The state does not invest enough in water management and the water profession, and its knowledge is fragmented, driven mainly by enthusiastic individuals," Kajfez Bogataj said. She asserted Slovenia basically has no water management strategy, even though it is one of its most strategic resources and should be viewed as a basic human right, the Slovenian daily Delo reported.

"We have no vision and experience shows that to get what we want, it becomes necessary to create state policy," Kajfez Bogataj said. "Where is the Slovenian water partnership, bringing together academic experts, policy makers and civil society?"...