Unlike oil, there are
no substitutes for water. But today, fresh water resources are
stretched thin. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst.
Water is life: The impact of water
shortage is being felt all over the
world, in the industrialised as well
as developing countries.
At the United Nations, 22nd March is World Water Day. We don’t expect
people to stop what they are doing and observe a moment of silence —
but maybe they should. Every 20 seconds, a child dies from diseases
associated with a lack of clean water. That adds up to an
unconscionable 1.5 million young lives cut short each year.
More than two and a half billion people in the world live in the most
abysmal standards of hygiene and sanitation. Helping them would do more
than reduce the death toll; it would serve to protect the environment,
alleviate poverty and promote development. That’s because water
underpins so much of the work we do in these areas.
Water is essential for survival. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes.
But today, fresh water resources are stretched thin. Population growth
will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global
economy grows, so will its thirst.
Risk of conflict
As with oil, problems that grow from the scarcity of a vital resource
tend to spill over borders. International Alert has identified 46
countries, home to 2.7 billion people, where climate change and
water-related crises create a high risk of violent conflict. A further
56 countries, representing another 1.2 billion people, are at high risk
of political instability. That’s more than half the world.
This is not an issue of rich or poor, north or south. China is
diverting hundreds of millions of cubic metres of water to
drought-prone Beijing ahead of the Olympics, but shortages are expected
to persist for years to come. In North America, the mighty Colorado
river seldom reaches the sea. Water stress affects one-third of the
United States and one-fifth of Spain.
Depleting river waters
The water system of Lake Chad, in central Africa, supports some 30
million people. Yet over the past 30 years, it has shrunk to one-tenth
of its former size, thanks to drought, climate change, mismanagement
and overuse. Visiting Brazil this fall, I had to cancel a trip down a
major tributary of the Amazon. It had dried up.
I have spent the past year beating the drum on climate change. We’ve
seen the results in the “Bali road map,” which charts a course for
negotiations on a legally binding treaty limiting greenhouse gas
emissions to take over when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
This year, I will make a similar effort to raise public awareness of
the Millennium Development Goals.
Among other things, the so-called MDGs set a target of cutting by half
the number of people without safe access to water by 2015. This is
critically important. When you look at the health and development
challenges faced by the poorest of the world’s population — diseases
like malaria or TB, rising food prices, environmental degradation — the
common denominator often turns out to be water.
Evolving better strategies
This September, I will gather top-level officials from across the world
at a summit in New York on how to reach the Goals, particularly in
Africa. In the meantime, we need to begin thinking about better
strategies for managing water — for using it efficiently and sharing it
fairly. This means partnerships involving not just governments but
civil society groups, individuals and businesses.
We are in the early stages of this awakening. But there are some
encouraging signs, especially in the private sector. Corporations have
long been viewed as culprits. The smokestacks from power plants pollute
our air, the effluents from industry spoil our rivers. But this is
changing. More and more today, businesses are working to become part of
the solution, rather than the problem.
Corporate commitment
Earlier this month, members of the UN Global Compact, the world’s
largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative, gathered in New
York for a meeting on water. The companies in that room had a total
worth of about half a trillion dollars with employees in some 200
countries. The main theme: moving beyond the mere use of water to
stewardship. This translates into a commitment to engage with the
United Nations, governments and civil groups to protect what is
becoming an increasingly scarce resource and ensure that local
communities benefit.
Every journey is comprised of myriad small steps, and they spoke about
those, too. A major textiles company told [us] how it was working with
local governments and farmers to conserve watersheds in growing cotton.
A jeans designer is planning to change its labels, calling for washing
in cold and hanging dry as a step to save water. A drop in the bucket,
yes. But I see it as the first wave in a tide of change.
(The writer is Secretary-General of the United Nations.)
(Courtesy: U.N. Information Centre, New Delhi)
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/17/stories/2008031755911100.htm
Copyright © 2008, The Hindu.
