Water
It is estimated that 1 billion people lack access to a sufficient water supply, defined as a source likely to provide 20 litres per person per day at a distance no greater than 1,000 metres. Such sources would include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collections.
The United Nations has long been addressing the global crisis caused by growing demands on the world’s water resources to meet human, commercial and agricultural needs, as well as the need for basic sanitation. The United Nations Water Conference (1977), the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990), the International Conference on Water and the Environment (1992) and the Earth Summit (1992) — all focused on this vital resource. The Decade, in particular, helped some 1.3 billion people in the developing countries gain access to safe drinking water.
Causes of inadequate water supply include inefficient use, degradation of water by pollution, and over-exploitation of groundwater reserves. Corrective action aims at achieving better management of scarce freshwater resources, with a particular focus on supply and demand, quantity and quality. UN system activities focus on the sustainable development of fragile and finite freshwater resources, which are under increasing stress from population growth, pollution and the demands of agricultural and industrial uses.
The crucial importance of water to so many aspects of human health, development and well-being led to specific water-related targets in support of every one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These targets relate to the goals on: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV, AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.
To help raise public awareness on the importance of intelligent development of freshwater resources, the General Assembly declared 2003 the International Year of Freshwater. Also in 2003, the Chief Executives Board (CEB), the coordinating body for the entire UN system, established “UN Water” — an inter-agency mechanism to coordinate UN system actions to achieve the water-related goals of the Millennium Declaration and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.
To further strengthen global action to meet the water-related MDG targets, the General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life” (2015-2015). The Decade began on 22 March 2005, which is observed annually as World Water Day.
In 2009, “UN Water” and its 26 UN agencies, working in partnership with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders and expert groups, published the third edition of the United Nations triennial World Water Development Report, which analyses data and trends affecting the world’s freshwater resources.
Clean, safe, and adequate freshwater is vital to the survival of all living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems, communities and economies. But the quality of the world’s water is increasingly threatened as human populations grow, industrial and agricultural activities expand, and as climate change threatens to alter the global hydrologic cycle …
Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage and industrial and agricultural wastes are poured into the world’s waters … Every year, more people die from the consequences of unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war … Water contamination weakens or destroys natural ecosystems that support human health, food production, and biodiversity … Most polluted freshwater ends up in the oceans, damaging coastal areas and fisheries …
There is an urgent need for the global community –– both public and private sectors –– to join together to take on the challenge of protecting and improving the quality of water in our rivers, lakes, aquifers, and taps.