26% population lack safe drinking water

UNITED NATIONS, March 23, (AP): The United Nations chief urged the first world conference on water in over 45 years on Wednesday to address the “21st century emergency” that is wasting the world’s most important resource and has left billions of people without clean water and basic sanitation.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the opening session that water is “humanity’s lifeblood” and a human right, but the world is draining it “through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use and evaporating it through global heating.”

In a challenge to all nations and the broader international community, he said the three-day conference must represent “a quantum leap” in recognition of the vital importance of water and the need for action to ensure its sustainable use.

Guterres called for “game-changing commitments” toward UN goals, including ensuring that all people have access to drinking water and sanitation by 2030.

The UN World Water Development Report, issued on the eve of the conference, says 26% of the world’s population - 2 billion people - don’t have access to safe drinking water and 46% - 3.6 billion people - lack access to basic sanitation. UN research also shows that almost half the world’s people will suffer severe water stress by 2030.

The UN secretary-general called for major investments in water and sanitation systems and efforts to address climate change, stressing that “climate action and a sustainable water future are two sides of the same coin.”

Commitments

According to conference organizers, such commitments will be the key outcome of the conference. Already, more than 500 commitments have been registered from governments, U.N. agencies, business leaders and civil society, they say.

Just before the conference opened, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced a new commitment from the Biden administration, of $49 billion to be put toward “equitable, climate-resilient water and sanitation investments at home and around the world.”

She said the new US funding “will help create jobs, prevent conflicts, safeguard public health, reduce the risk of famine and hunger, and enable us to respond to climate change and natural disasters.”

But the US envoy stressed the need for global cooperation and urged the UN Security Council to take up the issue of water scarcity, which exacerbates conflicts and disrupts peace and security.

The UN Water Conference is co-hosted by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon. There are 171 countries, including over 100 ministers, on the speakers list.

Rahmon said Tajikistan has abundant drinking water, although 1,000 of its 14,000 glaciers have completely melted in the last few decades. Noting that the last U.N. water conference was held in 1977 in Argentina, he proposed holding the next one in Tajikistan in 2028 to monitor implementation of the commitments being made during the current meeting.

Willem-Alexander stressed that over the next three days “we went to get the water wheel spinning” and ensure that the alarming state of the world’s water resources is given a high place on global agendas.

“Water security is one of the defining concerns of our time and it will determine our collective sustainable future,” the Dutch king said.

The UN World Water Development Report 2023, released Tuesday, painted a stark picture of the huge gap that needs to be filled to meet UN goals to ensure all people have access to clean water and sanitation by 2030.

Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the report, told a news conference that the estimated cost of meeting the goals is between $600 billion and $1 trillion a year.

But equally important, Connor said, is forging partnerships with investors, financiers, governments and climate change communities to ensure that money is invested in ways to sustain the environment and provide potable water to the 2 billion people who don’t have it and sanitation to the 3.6 million in need.

According to the report, water use has been increasing globally by roughly 1% per year over the last 40 years “and is expected to grow at a similar rate through to 2050, driven by a combination of population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns.”

Connor said that actual increase in demand is happening in developing countries and emerging economies where it is driven by industrial growth and especially the rapid increase in the population of cities. It is in these urban areas “that you’re having a real big increase in demand,” he said.

With agriculture using 70% of all water globally, Connor said, irrigation for crops has to be more efficient - as it is in some countries that now use drip irrigation, which saves water. “That allows water to be available to cities,” he said.

Climate

As a result of climate change, the report said, “seasonal water scarcity will increase in regions where it is currently abundant - such as Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America - and worsen in regions where water is already in short supply, such as the Middle East and the Sahara in Africa.”

On average, “10% of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress” - and up to 3.5 billion people live under conditions of water stress at least one month a year, said the report issued by UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Since 2000, floods in the tropics have quadrupled while floods in the north mid-latitudes have increased 2.5-fold, the report said. Trends in droughts are more difficult to establish, it said, “although an increase in intensity or frequency of droughts and ‘heat extremes’ can be expected in most regions as a direct result of climate change.”

As for water pollution, Connor said, the biggest source of pollution is untreated wastewater.

“Globally, 80% of wastewater is released to the environment without any treatment,” he said, “and in many developing countries it’s pretty much 99%.”

These and other issues including protecting aquatic ecosystems, improving management of water resources, increasing water reuse and promoting cooperation across borders on water use will be discussed during the threeday UN Water Conference co-chaired by King WillemAlexander of the Netherlands and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon opening Wednesday.

There are 171 countries, including over 100 ministers, on the speakers list along with more than 20 organizations. The meeting will also include five “interactive dialogues” and dozens of side events.