In the run up to the international Habitat-Il conference to be held at Istanbul in June 96, a three-day SAARC conference on human settlements was held at Colombo in the last week of February. Said Nirmal Sripala de Silva, the Sri Lankan housing minister that the conference was held to present the "SAARC view" at the Istanbul conference. The resolution arrived at the end of the conference stated that the key issues of the region were: access to institutional finance, provision of water and sanitation, urban solid waste management and the protection of urban environment.