Every 22 March is a special day, as it's World Water Day. Without water, we humans wouldn't be on this planet, so it's something to be deeply grateful for and to take care of.
This year's theme: Leaving No One Behind
It also turns out, it's something we need to help our fellow humans have access to, because not everyone does. As UN Water points out:
Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] 6 is crystal clear: water for all by 2030. By definition, this means leaving no one behind. But today, billions of people are still living without safe water – their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive. Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need.
What is SDG 6?
Regular readers of my blog will have seen this before, but it bears repeating. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - to be achieved by 2030 - are summarised in this image, and represent "our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people," according to the UN's SDG blog.
And SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation, is broken down into the following global targets:
6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity
6.5 By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
6.A By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies
6.B Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management
Did you catch the target date for SDG 6.6? That's not a typo.
Global facts and figures
Here are some scary facts and figures from the United Nations World Water Day page:
- 2.1 billion people live without safe water at home.
- One in four primary schools have no drinking water service, with pupils using unprotected sources or going thirsty.
- More than 700 children under five years of age die every day from diarrhoea linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation.
- Globally, 80% of the people who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources live in rural areas.
- Women and girls are responsible for water collection in eight out of ten households with water off-premises.
- For the 68.5 million people who have been forced to flee their homes, accessing safe water services is highly problematic.
- Around 159 million people collect their drinking water from surface water, such as ponds and streams.
- Around 4 billion people – nearly two-thirds of the world’s population – experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year.
- Over 800 women die every day from complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
- 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.
I would have preferred it if they'd linked that second to last point directly to water issues, but since water is so integral to successful pregnancy and childbirth, I guess our imaginations won't be far off on how lack of clean water could be a factor in the deaths of those 800 women per day.
Bringing it home to South Africa
Someone with a pretty good sense of humour works at South Africa's Department of Water Affairs (DWA).
How unexpected and refreshing is this text on DWA's webpage?
World Water Day takes place each and every year on March 22nd, and aims to underline the importance of water. While this may sound simple – and, in many people’s eyes, a bit daft – the lack of clean water around the world, alongside the damaging effects of global warming, water pollution and damaged water tables, is more important to understand than ever.
The initiative is spearheaded by the UN, alongside UNESCO, the World Water Council and the WWF – the one with pandas, not the one with Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. Using the day as a basis for longer-term action, the UN aims to ensure that everyone in the world has access to safe water by 2030, while not impacting the environment.
It's almost like a human who cares was allowed to express how they feel on a government website. Will wonders never cease.
Water infrastructure and power infrastructure work hand in hand
With the load shedding currently happening in South Africa, and looking like it's going to be the norm for at least another six months, we can see the spectre in this country of people not having access to water even if they have access to piped water and their area is not grossly affected by drought, as so many areas of this country are. Nope. It could be that families and businesses don't have access to water because the water boards don't have the electricity to pump the water to its destinations. We've already seen mobile phone service drop to emergency levels on at least one network (which one? mine) often for hours at a time during load shedding.
I hope you and yours are not among the statistics above and that you are not being "left behind" water-wise. Wishing you all access to clean and safe water this World Water Day.
References
http://www.unwater.org/world-water-day-2018-2/
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-start-of-new-year/
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6
http://www.un.org/en/events/waterday/
http://www.greeningtheblue.org/event/world-water-day
https://www.gov.za/WorldWaterDay2019
Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone
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