When we eat in restaurants, we usually ask for bottled water – not just a service water. We want our water to be safe. When I am in another country, I usually bring my own water – just in case there’s no water in the area where we are going.
The stark reality is: one in three people around the world these days lack safe drinking water. Nearly as many of them drink from a water source contaminated with faces. Many more lack safe sanitation, including 3 billion people around the world who don’t have basic hand-washing facilities at home.
Yet we are told that universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation could reduce the global disease burden by 10% and is considered the most cost-effective health intervention.
“Water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself,” says the United Nations. “Water is also at the heart of adaptation to climate change, serving as the crucial link between society and the environment.”
Water is also a rights issue. As the global population grows, there is an increasing need to balance all of the competing commercial demands on water resources, so that communities have enough for their needs. Women and girls, in particular, must have access to clean, private sanitation facilities to manage menstruation and maternity in dignity and safety.
“At the human level, water cannot be seen in isolation from sanitation,” the UN states. “Together, they are vital for reducing the global burden of disease and improving the health, education and economic productivity of populations.”
Today’s “crisis in water and sanitation is—above all—a crisis of the poor,” said the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) study, “Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Water Crisis.”
“Unlike the energy crisis,” commented Klaus Toepfer when he was the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, “the water crisis is life threatening. The level of suffering and misery represented by these statistics is beyond comprehension.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund estimated some 9 million people, mostly children, die annually from water-borne diseases. “The toll is equal to 75 large airline crashes daily,” a UN official estimated.
Installing a flush toilet in the home increases a newborn’s chances of celebrating a first birthday by 59%, the UNDP study showed. In the Philippines, out of every 1,000 kids, 27 never make it to their first birthday.
In industrialized countries like Sweden or Japan, water-borne disease is a subject for history books. But in the Philippines and other developing countries in Asia, it involves hospital wards and morgues.
“All of these diseases are associated with our failure to provide clean water,” said Peter H. Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security. “I think it’s terribly bleak, especially because we know what needs to be done to prevent these diseases. We’re doing some of it, but the efforts that are being made are not aggressive enough.”
“Water is fundamental for life and health,” the UN Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights said. “The human rights are indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite to the realization of all other human rights.”
Perhaps, one of the most important recent milestones has been the recognition in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly of the human right to water and sanitation. The Assembly recognized the right of every human being to have access to enough water for personal and domestic uses, meaning between 50 and 100 liters of water per person per day. The water must be safe, acceptable, and affordable.
Meanwhile, something must be done to abet the looming water crisis. “The world’s thirst for water is likely to become one of the most pressing resource issues of the 21st century,” stated the Washington-based World Resources Institute.
Just recently, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its Global Water Strategy – High Priority Country Plan for the Philippines during the investment forum organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippine Business for Social Progress and USAID Safe Water Project.
This strategic plan is dedicated to addressing critical water security challenges and fostering sustainable water resource management across the country.
“Our partnership with the private sector has helped mobilize over Php1 billion to improve water resources in the Philippines,” said USAID/Philippines Mission Director Ryan Washburn. “I hope that in this forum, we are able to strengthen our partnerships, and create new ones to bring meaningful change in the lives of communities, families and individuals that we support.”
Over the next five years, USAID’s support in the Philippines will work toward increasing clean drinking water access for 1.22 million people and sanitation services for 710,000 people. The program aims to mobilize approximately $100 million to enhance water security, sanitation, and hygiene in the country.
Water is a limited nonrenewable resource: of which a fixed amount exists on the planet: some 1,400 million cubic kilometers, which can be neither increased nor decreased. Most of this, that is, 97.4 percent, is salt water; another 2 percent is locked away in ice caps and glaciers. This leaves only 0.6 percent, or 8.4 cubic kilometers, of which some 8 million cubic kilometers are stored underground.
“Put in another way,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization explains, “if all the Earth’s water were to fit in a gallon jug (4 liters), the available fresh water would be just over one tablespoon.” –
