World Water Day highlights global crisis by UNEP / IPS / AFP 12:23am 23rd Mar, 2007   March 23, 2007    Two-thirds of world population could face water shortage by 2025: FAO. (AFP)    The head of the United Nation''s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) says two-thirds of the world''s population could be threatened by water shortages by 2025.    Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO, said in a speech in Rome on World Water Day that 1.2 billion people currently live in areas with insufficient water. He says an additional 500 million could soon face shortages.    "The international community has the means to greatly improve the management of our water resources and to allow more people access to water," Mr Diouf said, addressing an FAO conference on the issue.    Climate change and the pollution of a large number of rivers used for irrigation are making it increasingly difficult for southern countries to provide themselves with food, he said.    Ugandan Environment Minister Maria Mutagamba said at the conference that Africa has 9 per cent of the planet''s water resources, but uses only 3.8 per cent. Water resources on the continent are not well-distributed geographically, she said.    Ms Mutagamba also noted that the level of Lake Victoria, Africa''s largest freshwater reserve, fell two metres below normal in 2005.    "Because of common measures taken by countries with water access, we were able to increase the level by 70 centimetres (28 inches) in 2006, but we are worried about next season," she said.    The European commissioner for development, Louis Michel, sent a message to the conference detailing Europe''s efforts on water access.    Since 2002, Europe has committed $US535 million for short-term water-access projects, as well as $US475 million for long-term projects, he said.    Italy''s deputy foreign minister Patrizia Sentinelli said access to water should be viewed as a basic and legal human right and not be subject to private interests seeking to profit from it.    22 March 2007    UN marks World Water Day with calls for integrated management of vital resource.    With some 700 million around the world currently suffering from water scarcity, a figure that could increase to more than 3 billion by 2025, integrated cross-border management of this vital resource is crucial, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a message marking World Water Day.    “The state of the world’s waters remains fragile, and the need for an integrated and sustainable approach to water resource management is as pressing as ever. Available supplies are under great duress as a result of high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management practices, pollution, inadequate investment in infrastructure and low efficiency in water-use,” he noted.    “Yet even more water will be needed in the future: to grow food, to provide clean drinking water and sanitation services, to operate industries and to support expanding cities. The water-supply-demand gap is likely to grow wider still, threatening economic and social development and environmental sustainability.”    He stressed that international cooperation will be crucial since many of the world’s rivers and aquifers are shared among countries. “The way forward is clear: strengthening institutional capacity and governance at all levels, promoting more technology transfer, mobilizing more financial resources, and scaling up good practices and lessons learned,” he said.    Of the hundreds of millions of people currently facing water shortages an estimated 425 million are children under 18, said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.    “In many parts of the world women and children walk long distances to fetch water for their families for drinking, washing and cooking,” she said. “Access to clean drinking water is critical for the health of children around the world.”    UN World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan noted that over 1.6 million people die every year because they lack access to safe water and sanitation, 90 per cent of them among children under five, mostly in developing countries.    “For every child that dies, countless others suffer from poor health, diminished productivity, and missed opportunities for education. Much of this illness and death could be prevented using knowledge that has existed for many years,” she said.    Diseases such as cholera, typhoid, malaria and dengue could rise due to climate change, which makes availability of freshwater less predictable because of more frequent flooding and droughts, she warned.    UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner also stressed the dangers of climate change. “If we want to avoid ‘Water Scarcity’ as the permanent theme for the 21st century, a big part of the solution is cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 60 to 80 per cent,” he said, referring to humankind’s role in heating up the planet.    UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf pointed to the agricultural sector’s role as the number 1 user of water worldwide and its consequent duty to take the lead in addressing rising global demand and its potential drain on the earth’s natural resources.    “With the right incentives and investments to mitigate risks for individual farmers, improving water control in agriculture holds considerable potential to increase food production and reduce poverty, while ensuring the maintaining of ecosystem services,” he said.    “The potential exists to provide an adequate and sustainable supply of quality water for all, today and in the future. But there is no room for complacency. It is our common responsibility to take the challenge of today’s global water crisis and address it in all of its aspects and dimensions.”    UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura stressed the threat to peace and poverty eradication posed by the growing scarcity and competition for water. “It is imperative to secure a more effective and equitable allocation of this vital resource,” he said in a message    22 March, 2007    Message from the United Nations Environment Programme chief Achim Steiner.    Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for six billion people but it is shared unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.    The reality of climate change compels the world to pay even greater attention to water scarcity given the predicted variability and more extreme weather events likely over the coming years and decades.    The text book planning of a dam on the basis of a one in 100 flow is becoming a hydrological lottery of receding certainty.    Glaciers, water stores and water sources for millions of people alongside wildlife and economically productive ecosystems, are melting three times faster than in the 1980s and could disappear in the decades to come.    A Brazilian study indicates that temperatures in the Amazon could rise as high as 8 degrees C dramatically altering the flows of one of the world"s most important freshwater systems. So if we want to avoid "Water Scarcity" as the permanent theme for the 21st century, a big part of the solution is cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 60 to 80 per cent.    Fortunately, World Water Day 2007 comes in a year of unprecedented momentum on climate change both scientifically and politically. Let us hope that the tide of political opinion is genuinely changing in favour of a meaningful, fair and equitable emissions-reduction regime for when the Kyoto Protocol treaty expires in five short-years time.    Even without climate change addressing water scarcity remains an issue in need of resolution. Environmental degradation, from deforestation to the draining of wetlands is aggravating scarcity as are inefficient forms of irrigation, over-exploitation of underground aquifers and pollution to rivers, lakes and streams.    UNEP"s last Governing Council adopted a new water policy and strategy for the organization. We, in partnership with the UN system and others, are fully committed to its implementation which centers on improved, sustainable management.    Solutions do not always need to be large-scale or require deep, fathomless pockets take rainwater harvesting. There is, mathematically, enough rain falling on Africa to more than supply 13 billion people. It is a similar story across large parts of the globe including Asia and Latin America.    Reducing water scarcity by, for example, rainwater harvesting has multiple benefits. A Maasai community in Kenya is now storing over half a million litres. It is not only a buffer against drought. Small kitchen gardens and wood lots have also sprouted contributing to food, energy security, overcoming poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.    22 March 2007    World Water Day highlights global crisis, by Mithre J Sandrasagra. (IPS)    Halfway to 2015, the year when the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are supposed to be reached, the crisis in water and sanitation as well as in water-resource management remains among the great human development and environmental challenges.    Thursday is World Water Day, and the United Nations is stressing the importance of good governance and proper management of water resources at both international and local levels.    The theme of World Water Day 2007, Coping with Water Scarcity, will require addressing a range of issues, from protection of the environment and global warming to equitable distribution of water for irrigation, industry and household use.    "The state of the world"s waters remains fragile," stressed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. "Available supplies are under great duress as a result of high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management practices, pollution, inadequate investment in infrastructure, and low efficiency in water-use."    There is enough water in the world for everyone, but only if it is properly managed, according to the UN.    Slightly more than a billion people do not have access to adequate clean water to meet their basic daily needs, and 2,6-billion do not have proper sanitation, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Children"s Fund.    The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that by 2025, 1,8-billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world"s population could be living under water stress conditions.    Those affected are already among the world"s poorest, with more than half of them living in China and India, according to UN estimates.    Agriculture is the number-one user of water worldwide, accounting for about 70% of all fresh water drawn from lakes, waterways and aquifers around the world. The figure is closer to 90% in several developing countries, where roughly three-quarters of the world"s irrigated farmlands are located.    Water shortages are most acute in the driest areas of the world, according to the FAO.    Most countries in the Near East and North Africa suffer from acute water scarcity, as do countries such as Mexico, Pakistan and South Africa, as well as large parts of China and India.    "Water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase over the last century, making sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources a key challenge for the future," according to the FAO"s Pasquale Steduto, current chairperson of the UN coordination mechanism, UN-Water.    UN-Water is made up of 24 UN agencies that have a significant role in tackling global water concerns and includes major non-UN partners who cooperate with them in advancing progress towards the water-related goals of the Water for Life Decade (2005-2015) and MDGs.    "Sound water-resource management at all levels can help countries adopt flexible approaches that allow more people to have the water they need while preserving the environment," says Steduto, who also serves as chief of the FAO"s water, development and management unit. "The global community has the know-how to cope with water scarcity, but we have to take action."    Recognising the vital part fresh water plays in human security and development, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, adopted by UN member states at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, called on countries to develop integrated water-resource management and water-efficiency plans by 2005.    Only about 12% of countries have done so to date, says a 2006 UN-Water report entitled Water: A Shared Responsibility.    Financial resources for water are also stagnating.    According to the report, total official development assistance to the water sector in recent years has averaged about $3-billion a year. However, only a small proportion -- 12% -- of these funds reach those most in need, according to UN-Water, and only about 10% is used to support development of water policy, planning and programmes.    Added to the shortfall, private-sector investment in water services is also declining.    During the 1990s, the private sector spent an estimated $25-billion on water supply and sanitation in developing countries, mostly in Latin America and Asia.    However, according to UN-Water, many big multinational water companies have begun withdrawing from or downsizing their operations in the developing world because of the high political and financial risks.    "Water has a major impact on the capacity of people everywhere to improve their lives," says Steduto.    The FAO points out that even people in areas with plenty of fresh water sometimes experience scarcity.    "Good governance is essential for managing our increasingly stretched supplies of freshwater and indispensable for tackling poverty," noted Koichiro Matsuura, director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).    Although there are no accurate figures, Unesco estimates that political corruption costs the water sector millions of dollars every year and undermines water services, especially to the poor.    Water: A Crisis of Governance, a report published by UN-Water in 2006, cites a survey in India, in which 41% of the respondents had made more than one "small bribe" in the previous six months to falsify metre readings; 30% had made payments to "expedite repair work"; and 12% had made payments to "expedite new water and sanitation connections".    The report points to "mismanagement, corruption, lack of appropriate institutions, bureaucratic inertia and a shortage of new investments in building human capacity as well as physical infrastructure" as the primary causes of water shortages.    Poor water quality is a key cause of poor livelihood and health.    Globally, diarrhoeral diseases and malaria killed about 3,1-million people in 2002, according to the WHO. Ninety percent of these deaths were children under the age of five.    The WHO estimates that 1,6-million lives could be saved annually by providing access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.    If the present trends are allowed to continue unchecked, UN-Water warns that regions such as sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the MDG of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.    The MDG target of halving the proportion of people without basic sanitation will not be met either. Visit the related web page
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