My water needs may not be the same as yours.
“We did everything we could but despite our best efforts your mother has died”, said Dr. Grey to one of her patients in the famous Grey’s Anatomy TV series. I feel like given the report published by the IPCC this year and the rate in which we are fueling the water issue and climate crisis, we will soon be saying what Dr. Grey said to our Mother Earth. Except only, it seems that we are not doing all our best efforts to save our planet.
Therefore, it is timely that after 46 years, the UN Water Conference 2023 was held, as 90% of natural disasters are water-related and all climate related disaster involve water. It was an opportunity to hear from member states and stakeholders on water issues and the current local situations in their respective countries and share best practices with each other.
As co-habitants of this beautiful planet, we need to share our experiences because individual and country experiences are unique and differ from each other. The experience in country A may be different from country Z, the experience of industries may differ from those in conservation and so forth. Nevertheless, the general understanding remains that, water is a precious universal resource that is a basic need requiring our protection and preservation.
I grew up in the village of Sa’anapu, Safata, Samoa and water was always an issue for us when I was younger. Our water supply 15 to 20 years ago is very different from now, water was supplied from a local ground water well which operated on a schedule morning, afternoon and in the evenings. Likewise, this was the situation in other villages and districts in the rural areas. Couple of years later, the national water supply finally made its way to our district and water access was like never before, no schedules and endless supply. Or was it?
In 2021, for the first time since, it was déjà vu all over again with the time schedules or no schedules because water was being rationed due to shortage in supply. At the same time, the meteorology office in Samoa reported a significant drop in rainfall in Samoa and had been one of the driest years recorded yet.
This indicated that yes, there is an inextricable link between water, climate change and disaster risk reduction and the need for better infrastructure and better capacity to better reduce disaster risks. It also indicated the need for better integrated water management and the need to learn from each other on good practices and lessons learnt in sustaining our water systems with the use of robust information systems and scientific data.
In this regard, we need to do more than just meet and discuss but to initiate solutions to the water crisis we face. I believe that governments need to re-consider their priorities and put water on the same level as climate change and other issues of high importance. Although this may sound cliché but water is life as we need it for our daily sustenance especially in the long term.
As the Chair of AOSIS Ambassador Luteru said, “Water is a human right, but that does not matter if there is water everywhere and not a drop to drink”. That is our story, what is yours?
