Manila's Pasig River continues to play an important social, cultural, historical, and political role. Its restoration, which began with the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program in 1989, aims to reverse the effects of years of negligence, uncontrolled development, and unabated pollution.

While Asia continues to show remarkable development and poverty reduction and expands its role significantly in the global economy, water security becomes a growing concern. Increasing water security will require mobilization of new levels of cooperation among all economic sectors and sections of society.