Water. The most fundamental
building block of life. Most of us are fortunate to be living in a place where
water is literally at our fingertips.
Many people in the developed world imagine Ethiopia as an arid wasteland, with
no water to be found. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In Pakistan the mortality rate for children under-five is 101 deaths per 1000
children. Water and sanitation related diseases are responsible for 60% of the
total number of child mortality cases in Pakistan, with diarrheal diseases
estimated at killing over 200,000 under-five years' children, every year. The
combination of unsafe water consumption and poor hygiene practices causes
hardship due to resultant high costing treatments for water borne illnesses,
decreased working days, and also contributes to lowering of educational
achievement due to reduced school attendance by children.
World Water Day 2009
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of
focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the
sustainable management of freshwater resources.
An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations
General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water
Day.
Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. On this
page, we present a brief overview of the different themes that have been the
focus of World Water Day celebrations.
In 2009, the theme for World Water Day is "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities".
Special focus will be placed on transboundary waters. Nurturing the
opportunities for cooperation in transboundary water management can help build
mutual respect, understanding and trust among countries and promote peace,
security and sustainable economic growth. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) leads the activities of the World
Water Day 2009 with the support of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(UNECE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In 2008, World Water Day coincided with the International Year of Sanitation,
and challenged us to spur action on a crisis affecting more th1an one out of
three people on the planet. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of the
abysmal sanitation conditions endured by some 2.6 billion people globally. That
adds up to an unconscionable 1.5 million young lives cut short by a cause we
know well how to prevent. Ceremonies for the day took place at Geneva,
Switzerland. Speakers included Royal Highness Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
and Director-General of WHO Dr Margaret Chan.
Water Resources
The total volume of water on Earth is about 1.4 billion km3. The volume of
freshwater resources is around 35 million km3, or about 2.5 percent of the total
volume.Of these freshwater resources, about 24 million km3 or 70 percent is in
the form of ice and permanent snow cover in mountainous regions, the Antarctic
and Arctic regions. Around 30 percent of the world's freshwater is stored
underground in the form of groundwater (shallow and deep groundwater basins up
to 2 000 meters, soil moisture, swamp water and permafrost). This constitutes
about 97 percent of all the freshwater that is potentially available for human
use. Freshwater lakes and rivers contain an estimated 105 000 km3 or around 0.3
percent of the world's freshwater. The Earth's atmosphere contains approximately
13,000 km3 of water. The total usable freshwater supply for ecosystems and
humans is about 200 000 km3 of water - less than 1 percent of all freshwater
resources.
Water Use
How the world uses freshwater:
• about 70 percent for irrigation
• about 22 percent for industry
• about 8 percent for domestic use
Water use has been growing at more than the rate twice of population increase in
the last century. The world's six billion people are appropriating 54 percent of
all the accessible freshwater contained in rivers, lakes and underground
aquifers. 145 nations have territory within a Tran boundary basin. Water
withdrawals are predicted to increase by 50 percent by 2025 in developing
countries, and 18 per cent in developed countries. Over 1.4 billion people
currently live in river basins where the use of water exceeds minimum recharge
levels, leading to the desiccation of rivers and depletion of groundwater. In 60
percent of European cities with more than 100,000 people, groundwater is being
used at a faster rate than it can be replenished. By 2025, 1 800 million people
will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and
two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.
Drinking Water and Sanitation
The UN suggests that each person needs 20-50 liters of safe freshwater a day to
ensure their basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning. More than one in
six people worldwide - 894 million - don't have access to this amount of safe
freshwater. Globally, diarrhoea is the leading cause of illness and death, and
88 per cent of diarrhoeal deaths are due to a lack of access to sanitation
facilities, together with inadequate availability of water for hygiene and
unsafe drinking water. Today 2.5 billion people, including almost one billion
children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as
a result of poor sanitation. That's 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, treating diarrhoea consumes 12 percent of the health
budget. On a typical day, more than half the hospital beds in are occupied by
patients suffering from faecal-related disease.
Washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrhoeal diseases by up to 47
per cent. The first ever global hand washing day was celebrated on 15 October
during the International Year of Sanitation.
Water, Agriculture and Food Security
The daily drinking water requirement per person is 2-4 liters, but it takes 2
000 to 5 000 liters of water to produce one person's daily food.
It takes 1 000-3 000 liters of water to produce just one kilo of rice and 13 000
to 15 000 liters to produce one kilo of grain-fed beef. In 2007, the estimated
number of undernourished people worldwide was 923 million. Over the period to
2050 the world's water will have to support the agricultural systems that will
feed and create livelihoods for an additional 2.7 billion people. The extent of
land under irrigation in the world is 277 million hectares, about 20 percent of
all cropland. Rain fed agriculture is practiced on the remaining 80 percent of
the arable land. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts yields
from rain-dependent agriculture could be down by 50 percent by 2020. Due to
climate change, Himalayan snow and ice, which provide vast amounts of water for
agriculture in Asia, are expected to decline by 20 percent by 2030.
Irrigation increases yields of most crops by 100 to 400 percent, and irrigated
agriculture currently contributes to 40 percent of the world's food
production.Poor drainage and irrigation practices have led to water logging and
Stalinization of approximately 10 percent of the world's irrigated lands.
Water pollution, Environment Degradation and Disaster
Every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in water courses.
In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated
into waters where they pollute the usable water supply. Contribution of the food
sector to the production of organic water pollutants:
- High income countries: 40 percent
- Low-income countries: 54 percent
Projected increases in fertilizer use for food production and in wastewater
effluents over the next three decades suggest there will be a 10-20 per cent
global increase in river nitrogen flows to coastal ecosystems. Half of the
world's wetlands have been lost since 1900.Between 1991 and 2000 over 665,000
people died in 2,557 natural disasters of which 90 percent were water-related
events.
The world’s 263 Tran boundary lake and river basins include the territory of 145
countries and cover nearly half of the Earth’s land surface. Great reservoirs of
freshwater also move silently below our borders in underground aquifers With
every country seeking to satisfy its water needs from limited water resources,
some foresee a future filled with conflict. But history shows that cooperation,
not conflict, is the most common response to Tran boundary water management
issues. Over the last 60 years there have been more than 200 international water
agreements and only 37 cases of reported violence between states over water. We
need to continue to nurture the opportunities for cooperation that Tran boundary
water management can provide. We share the responsibility for managing the
world’s Tran boundary waters for current and future generations.
Whether we live upstream or downstream, we are in the same boat.
There are 263 Tran boundary river basins. Over 45 percent of the land surface of
the world is covered by river basins that are shared by more than one country.
Over 75 percent of all countries, 145 in total, have within their boundaries
shared river basins. And 33 nations have over 95 percent of their territory
within international river basins.
While most Tran boundary river basins are shared between just two countries,
there are many river basins where this number is much higher. There are 13
basins worldwide that are shared between 5 to 8 countries. Five river basins,
the Congo, Niger, Nile, Rhine and Zambezi, are shared between 9 to 11 countries.
The river that flows through the most countries is the Danube, which passes
through the territory of 18 countries. Over 40 percent of the world’s population
resides within internationally shared river basins. So far, 274 Tran boundary
aquifers have been identified. They lie under 15 percent of the Earth's surface.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has identified more
than 3,600 treaties relating to international water resources dating from AD 805
to 1984. The majority of these treaties are concerned with some aspect of
navigation.
In the last century, more than 200 water-related treaties have been negotiated
and signed. The history of international water treaties dates as far back as
2500 BC, when the two Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma crafted an
agreement ending a water dispute along the Tigris River. The total number of
water-related interactions between nations are weighted towards cooperation.
There have been 507 conflict-related events as opposed to 1,228 cooperative
ones. This implies that violence over water is not a strategically rational,
effective or economically viable option for countries. In the 20th century, only
seven minor skirmishes took place between nations over shared water resources,
while over 300 treaties were signed during the same period of time.
International water law concerns the rights and obligations that exist,
primarily between States, for the management of Tran boundary water resources.
Such legal rules and principles are dedicated to preventing conflict and
promoting cooperation of shared water resources. The UN Convention on the Law of
the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted May 21, 1997
after 27 years of development. The Global Convention sets out the basis rights
and obligations between States relating to the management of international
watercourses.
While the ten-year anniversary of the Watercourses Convention passed in May
2007, only 16 nations have ratified the Convention. For the Convention to enter
into force, 35 are needed.
The primary substantive rules of international law is that States must utilize
their international watercourses in an equitable and reasonable way and without
causing significant harm to their neighbors.
The UN Convention on the Law of Non-navigational uses (1997) covered groundwater
in a very limited way. Nineteen articles on the law of Tran boundary aquifers
have come in to fill this gap. They were drafted by a team of hydro geologists
and lawyers drawn from UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programmed (IHP) and
the UN International Law Commission. The 6th Committee of UN General Assembly
endorsed the articles and adopted a resolution on the Law of Tran boundary
Aquifers on Friday, 14 November 2008. The articles have been annexed to a UN
resolution, which recommends that the States concerned make appropriate
bilateral or regional arrangements for managing their Tran boundary aquifers on
the basis of the principles enunciated in the articles. These principles include
States cooperating to prevent and control pollution of their shared aquifers. In
view of the importance of these ‘invisible resources’, States are also invited
to consider the elaboration of a convention on the basis of the draft articles.
So we will struggle to save the water and also share it to those who haven’t the
opportunity of water. Our struggle can save a life.