The first full session of the United Nations Water Resources Conference took place on Tuesday (15 March) at Argentina's coastal resort city of Mar Del Plata. The conference is chiefly concerned with world population increases which result in heavier demands on the World's fixed fresh water supply for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. The Danish Minister of the Environment, Mr Neels Mathiasen, was one of the first to express his delegation's hopes on what the conference could do.

SYNOPSIS: The opening address for Spain was given by Mr Santiago S. Penda, the Secretary of the Spanish delegation. Spain was expected to be one of the first countries to put forward ideas for preventing a world water crisis. Among the other first speakers was the Minister of Irrigation for Egypt, Mr Abdul Azim Abul Atta, who had his own proposals to put to the conference.

But the first day's most radical proposal came from Tanzania's Water Minister, Mr Al Noor Kassum. He suggested that the nations of the World should cut down their purchases of weapons and channel the money saved into providing water for deprived rural areas of under-developed countries. Another speaker - Poland's Agriculture Minister, Alfred Jaskowiak.