The conference, Cacic said, was aimed at raising awareness of Croatia's water resources and the importance of a responsible attitude towards water. She pointed out that more than 783 million people in the world do not have access to drinking water.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Snjezana Spanjol underscored that Croatia was well positioned with regard to water resources but that it is necessary to raise awareness of responsible water stewardship, she said.
Water reserves are an exceptional wealth but obliges us to preserve it for future generations, Spanjol said. She added that the water-utilities sector in Croatia is fragmented into around 175 distributors and there is a huge problem with the loss of water through pipelines due to the inefficiency of distributors, which has prompted the ministry to launch reforms in this sector.
The reforms, she said, will raise the quality of water supply services, secure supplies, reduce losses in pipelines, develop the water utility infrastructure, introduce a single price and facilitate better absorption of grants from EU funds.
Croatia bottled 370 million litres of water in 2012, compared with 2005 when 287 million litres were bottled. In 2014, 347 million litres were bottled with more mineral water being bottled than flat.