''People will not wait five to ten years for water. They will take it now, illegally if necessary. Time is of the essence,'' says K.E.Seetharam, water and urban development specialist at the Asian Development Bank (AsDB).

A team of water experts who are working round the clock to prepare a forward-looking document called Asian Water and Development Outlook (AWDO), funded by the AsDB, met in Singapore for three days of consultations, last week. The document is expected to act as a guide for policy makers in the region.

GAID is organizing a Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development: Youth and ICT as Agents of Change, that will help harness the creativity and dynamism that the youth has in exploring and exploiting ICT for their own benefit and for the benefit of their peers and communities in advancement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Forum aims at actively engaging youth in debates and discussions with their peer representatives, policy makers, private sector, technology and thought leaders and others in exploring ways to empower the community and to participate more fully in society through the appropriate and responsible use of ICT.

The Alliance responds to the need and demand for an inclusive global forum and platform for cross-sectoral policy dialogue on the use of ICT for enhancing the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, notably reduction of poverty.

BRUSSELS, Aug 29 (IPS) - The European Union's only directly elected body is demanding increased aid for basic health and education in poor countries before it approves next year's budget for the 27-nation bloc.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have recently begun scrutinising the EU's draft budget for 2008, which is set to exceed 129 billion euros (176 billion dollars).

Initial discussions within the assembly indicate that it could refuse to give its blessing to some of the proposed expenditure on development aid in a vote slated for December.

Ralf Walter, a German Socialist MEP, said that he was dissatisfied with the level of financing going to health and education in poor countries.

Leading donor nations and international agencies are to come together in a major new partnership aimed at improving healthcare in  the developing world, the PM has said.

In a joint statement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel following bilateral talks in Downing Street, the PM said that addressing healthcare and aid provision was now a "development emergency". The new partnership, which will launch formally on 5 September, will drive forward work on Millennium Development Goals involving the reduction of child and maternal mortality and the tackling of specific diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus yesterday urged the South Asian nations to get closer quickly by resolving conflicts to slash poverty to zero in the region.

"We spent more time for falling apart than coming closer. But we can come together because it is the question of our survival, our dignity," he made the remarks in his keynote speech at the sixth conference of the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma) at Hotel Cinnamon.

Yunus said, "Whatever conflicts are there among the Saarc nations--India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or wherever--it should be resolved quickly... There is no alternative."