NEW YORK, 22 March 2010 -More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, calling for better protection and sustainable management of one of the Earth’s most precious resources on the occasion of World Water Day.
– These deaths are an affront to our common humanity, and undermine the efforts of many countries to achieve their development potential,” Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, which this year focuses on “Clean Water for a Healthy World” as its theme.
– Our growing population’s need for water for food, raw materials and energy is increasingly competing with nature’s own demands for water to sustain already imperilled ecosystems and the services on which we depend, he noted.
– Day after day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural waste into the world’s water systems. Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer with the onset of climate change, added the Secretary-General.
In his message, Mr. Ban highlighted that water is vitally linked to all UN development goals, including maternal and child health and life expectancy, women’s empowerment, food security, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
As such, the General Assembly recognized 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action “Water for Life.”
Every day around the world, 2 million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are poured in the earth’s waters, while one child under the age of five dies every 20 seconds from water-related diseases, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
In a new report, the agency points out that an investment of 20 million US dolllar in low-cost water technologies, such as drip irrigation and treadle pumps, could potentially lift 100 million poor farming families out of extreme poverty.
The publication, entitled Clearing the Waters: A focus on Water Quality Solutions, found that repairing leaky water and sewage networks can not only secure water supplies, but also lower pollution and boost employment.
In some poorer nations, more than half of treated water is lost to leaks, but by some estimates, saving just half of the water could benefit 90 million people without additional investment.
– Human activity over the past 50 years is responsible for unprecedented pollution, and the quality of the world’s water resources is increasingly challenged, said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
In another report also launched Monday, UNEP said that transforming wastewater – a combination of fertilizer run-off, sewage and other wastes – into clean resources poses a key challenge, as the world undergoes rapid urbanization, industrialization and stepped up demand for meat and other foods.
Sick Water?: The Central Role of Wastewater Management in Sustainable Development noted that many substances that make wastewater a pollutant, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, can be used as fertilizers for agriculture. It can also generate gases to fuel power stations and for cooking.
Currently, some 10 per cent of the global population is eating food grown using wastewater for irrigation and fertilization, and with better management and farmer training, the report said, this could be increased substantially.
