General Assembly of Morelia : 68 organizations from 32 countries became INBO members
The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) was created during the constitutive meeting held in May 1994 in Aix-les-Bains (France) at the invitation of the French Ministry for the Environment and the six Water Agencies.
The Network objective is to enable exchanges of experiences between basin organizations on all continents and to implement common activities.
It also aims at promoting the principles of a global and integrated management of water resources while respecting natural media and meeting all requirements. This management:
is organized on the scale of large river basins,
is supported by the participation of local authorities and of various categories of users, gathered in River Basin Committees, and
develops a financial solidarity in basins by applying the "user-polluter-pays" principle.
These important options are developed in the "Declaration of Membership" of INBO, which was officially approved during the last General Assembly held, from March 27 to 29, 1996, in Morelia (Mexico) at the invitation of the Mexican Authorities.
The works of this General Assembly, which gathered up to 450 participants, were opened by His Excellency Ernesto ZEDILLO, President of the United States of Mexico.
Mr. Eduardo MESTRE RODRIGUEZ, Regional Manager of the Lerma River - Chapala Lake basin (National Water Commission of Mexico) was elected President of the International Network of Basin Organizations until the next Assembly to be held in Spain in April 1997.
The 80 delegates - governmental administrations, river basin organizations and multilateral cooperation agencies, from the 40 countries, officially approved the "Declaration of Morelia"
The 16 interested countries of Latin America also decided to set up a regional cooperation subnetwork among them.
The General Assembly was also the occasion of organizing a working day on the topic "Information necessary for decision-making". This topic is particularly important to design a global policy for water resources management. Recommendations, that will be particularly useful for the new basin organizations being set up in many countries, were drawn up.