First Announcement

Sustainable development and utilization  of water resources is one of  the clues to  solve the water issue, the most important and urgent subject for the international  society  in the 21st century. To approach this issue, the 3rd World Water Forum Session which  will be held in Kyoto starting  16  March  2003, is expected to be the milestone  towards  the concrete action to contribute to the solution of the water issue though its  discussion.

Under such circumstance, the application of the desalination technology using renewable

energy  is  expected  as  one of  the  effective solutions.  In recent years, promotion of  

various renewable energies such as photovoltaic power generation, wind power as well as

the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) which has been studied in Saga University

of  Japan  has  been  attracting attention all over the world. Moreover, combination  and

promotion   effort   of   these   renewable   energies  and  various  type  of  desalination technologies are especially focusing spotlight of attention. It is remarkable that the island countries of  Pacific  Ocean  Region are aggressively making their effort to introduce and promote  utilization of  these new technologies due to the critical condition of the water, energy and environmental issue as well as the effect of global warming in the area.

With the understanding of such  world-wide  attention on the issue, Saga University  has

co-sponsored  with the  Government  of the Republic of Palau on "Forum on  Desalination

Using  Renewable  Energy  in  Palau"  on  October  2002. In  this  Forum, more  than 250 participants not limited from Palau  and  Japan but also the representatives from ten (10)

South Pacific island countries attended and conducted series of lectures by  the  experts

concerning water and energy issues as well as a  round table conference among  country

representatives. On the last  day of this Forum, "Palau Declaration"  was announced and

signed among the representatives therein.

Following these movements,  the  Executive  Committee  was  newly established by Saga

University, Saga Prefecture and various economic organizations of Saga, in order to host

"Forum on Desalination using  Renewable  Energy  in Saga" which is expected  to  play an

important role as pre-conference prior to the 3rd World Water Forum.

And, we would like to introduce the New Imari Satellite, Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga

University, which have been constructed  by  Ministry of Education and  Science,  using

about US$ 40 million. 

The Executive Committee is  hereby  pleased to announce  the  hosting of Saga Forum in

Saga  Prefecture  as  detailed  below,  by assembling  the  summit level leaders of South

Pacific  countries,  scientists, concerned  citizens,  NGOs etc.,  especially  expecting  to introduce the results of  the  research activities of Saga University to the participants in this occasion.

We  sincerely  hope  that  you  will be with us on this Saga Forum to discuss together on

"Desalination using Renewable Energy". 

We look forward to meeting you in Saga. 

HARUO UEHARA
The Chairman
Executive Committee of "Forum on Desalination using Renewable Energy"
President, Saga University