UN Environment/ Hannah McNeish
Before a UN Environment-supported rainwater harvesting project was set
up at Kingani secondary school in the coastal town of Bagamoyo, the drinking
water used to be so salty that students would complain of headaches, stomach
aches and ulcers.
19 March 2019
SDGs
Safe water and access to proper sanitation are essential to eradicate poverty,
build peaceful societies and ensure that no one is left behind on the path
towards sustainable development, according to the 2019 UN World Water
Development Report, launched on Tuesday in Geneva.
In collaboration with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Water
Assessment Programme, the report Leaving no one Behind, stresses that
waterfor all is “entirely achievable”.
“Access to safe, affordable and reliable drinking water and sanitation services
are basic human rights”, the report spells out. And yet, billions still lack these
facilities.
UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme coordinator Stefan Uhlenbrook
launches 2019 UN World Water Development Report in Geneva, Switzerland,
March 2019., by Screen capture
The report underscores that exclusion, discrimination, poverty and inequalities
are among the main obstacles to achieving the water-related goals of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
While the wealthy generally receive high levels of service at low prices, the poor
often pay a much higher price for services of similar, or lesser quality.
“It is insane that often in slum areas, people have to pay more for a volume of
water than people living it better off neighbourhoods”, Stefan Uhlenbrook,
UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme coordinator, said at the launch.
Moreover, rapid urbanization means slums will continue to develop, excluding
those who live there from the benefits of having an address, or water and
sanitation networks, leaving them reliant on costly alternatives.
He pointed out that slum-dwellers pay up to 10-20 per cent more for not having
piped in access to water and sanitation so “depend on water vendors, kiosks and
other things”.
Equal access to water for agricultural production, even if only for supplemental
watering of crops, can make the difference between farming as a mere means
of survival and farming as a reliable source of income, according to the report.
“Three-quarters of people living in extreme poverty live in rural areas” flagged
Mr. Uhlenbrook, adding that the vast majority are smallholder family farmers,
who, while constituting the backbone of national food chains, often suffer from
food insecurity and malnutrition.
‘The plight of displaced people’
The report discusses the barriers that refugees and internally-displaced people
often face in accessing water supply and sanitation services.
By the end of the 2017, conflict, persecution, or human rights violations forcibly
displaced an unprecedented 68.5 million from their homes. And sudden-onset
disasters displaced another 18.8 million.
Mass displacement places strain upon natural resources and water-related
services at transition and destination points for both existing populations and
new arrivals, creating potential inequalities and a source of conflicts among
them.
Delivering a keynote address at the launch event, 19-year-old Syrian refugee
Maya Ghazal, advocate for refugee rights, shared her experience as a 12-year
old.
“In 2011 the flames of the Syrian war sparked making it hard to maintain normal life requirements, gas, electricity or water”, she began. “I was 12 at the time and with my two younger brothers, we were tasked to be responsible for water”.
Responsible for the family supply of water, the then pre-teen shared some of
her “water hacks”.
“First of all” she informed the group, “make sure that you install a water tank
on your roof and make sure it has a centrifugal pump, so you will always have
water, even when the primary source is cut off”.
She cautioned to “always” check that the primary water source is pumping
water because when “war activities” happen, water would be cut off.
Her other “hacks” included limiting showers, “practice climbing” for going
up to the roof to check on the water tank and “be nice to your neighbor” in
case you need to borrow water.
UNECO Special Envoy for Science for Peace, Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan
of Jordan, told the gathering that while States bear the major responsibility in
ensuring the human right to access water and sanitation, “the plight of displaced
people starkly highlights that ensuring water provision is a collective
responsibility for the entire international community”.
Meeting challenges
The report lays out recommendations on how to overcome exclusion and
inequality for everyone to access water and sanitation, including by highlighting
that investing in it makes good economic sense.
While prioritizing those most in need, the report maintains that international
human rights law obliges States to impartially work for all to have access to
water resources while shining a spotlight on accountability, transparency and
justice as good governance features.
Finally, Leaving no one behind points out that tailored responses targeting specific groups can help ensure that affordable water supply and sanitation services are available to all.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1034981
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