In a sense, the whole story of man is revealed in his search for dependable water supplies. Where there has been too little, wars have been fought over what there was. Where there has has been too much, great cities and flourishing agricultures have been engulfed and destroyed. Where there was enough-and where people could depend upon it and where the people could control it-civilization has blossomed and has endured.

And it is no different today.

Even in the advanced nations, competition for the use of water is growing, and the supply of usable water is diminishing. America, with all of its power and all of its great wealth, still

1 Department of State Bulletin, Sept. 26, 1966, pp. 456-457.

millions all around the world. That challenge and that momentous obligation are still with us.

I know that Americans have the dedication, the patience, the skills, and the wisdom to see the job through. Working together with rich nations and poor, all equally determined that mankind will conquer its oldest enemy, we will win the war on hunger.

suffers periodic drought. The Northeast has been gripped in such a drought for 5 straight years with no end in sight.

But the situation is far worse in the developing nations of the world. I have seen many of its consequences firsthand.

In those lands there is an urgent need for water that is simply clean and pure enough for a human to drink-for drinking, for cooking, for washing, for bathing. Nearly half a billion people who live in developing nations obtain their water from unsanitary sources.

Water for growing food, water for producing the elementary goods of life-these are the desperate needs in country after country, nation after nation. But food to meet their needs can be produced only by advanced methods of irrigation, and the production of goods requires increasing amounts of water that tax the resources already available. Consider this figure: It takes 70,000 gallons of water to produce a single ton of steel.

If our water needs are great today, when 3 billion human beings inhabit the earth, imagine the situation at the end of this century-when that population will be more than 6 billion human beings. Our water needs by the year 2000 will not be met merely by doubling the water resources of today. They must be expanded several times over.

So it should be clear by now that we are in a race with disaster. Either the

nations all the technical assistance and training, all the contributions of modern science and technology, all the foodstuffs and fertilizers, all the industrial loans and educational development, all the security from external aggression-will be worn away by the arid winds of drought.

A genuine peace cannot be founded in a desert. A genuine peace cannot be founded among crowded nations that are starved for this elementalyes, this divine-gift.

Document XII-20

Public Law 89-799, Approved November 8, 1966"

Financial Support for an International Conference on Water for Peace in 1967

JOINT RESOLUTION

To enable the United States to organize and hold an International Conference on Water for Peace in the United States in 1967 and authorize an appropriation therefor.

Whereas there exists throughout the

world a common problem in planning the use of water to meet adequately the needs of the world's rapidly expanding population; and

Whereas the President, in announc

ing the Water for Peace Program of the United States Government," recognized the great value of a mutual sharing of knowledge in this important field with other countries in a worldwide cooperative effort to find solutions of man's water problems; and

Whereas

worldwide a conference would be the most effective means of bringing together representatives of all governments and agencies concerned, as well as experts, on the varying aspects of the water problems; would focus attention on current and future water problems; and would contribute to the development of policies and programs

necessary to meet these problems: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with other concerned departments and agencies, are authorized to take all necessary steps to organize and hold an International Conference on Water for Peace in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1967.

SEC. 2. There is authorized to be appropriated to the Department of State, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum not to exceed $900,000 for the purpose of defraying the expenses incident to organizing and holding such an international conference. Funds appropriated pursuant to this authorization shall be available for expenses incurred on behalf of the United States as host government, including personal services without regard to civil service and classification laws, except no salary rate shall exceed the maximum rate payable under the General Schedule of the Classification Act of 1949, as amended;' employment of aliens, printing and binding without regard to the provisions of any other law; travel expenses without regard to the Standardized Government Travel Regulations and to the rates of per diem allowances in lieu of subsistence expenses under the Travel Expense Act of 1949, as amended,10 of principal foreign delegates in the United States and of United States personnel and foreign technical experts; rent of facilities by contract or otherwise; hire of passenger motor vehicles; official functions and courtesies; and design, construction, and display of exhibits. Sums appropriated pursuant to this authorization shall remain available for obligation until December 31, 1967.

SEC. 3. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior are authorized to accept and use contributions of funds, property, services, and facilities, including the loan of

* See footnote 3 to doc. XII-19, supra. 8 Congress had previously appropriated $500,000 for this purpose, provided that the above legislation was enacted; see Public Law 89-697, approved Oct. 27, 1966 (80 Stat. 1064).

5 80 Stat. 1507.

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1965, pp. 1164-1165.

80 Stat. 288.

10 5 U.S.C. § 835.