World Water Week: Water is a right, water is life
As we celebrate World Water Week (23 – 28 August 2015), we remember that millions of people worldwide still do not have access to clean drinking water. Yoka Brandt, Unicef Deputy Executive Director, writes about the right for every child to have access to clean water.
If you were to ask me what I dream about, I’d probably say watching my beloved Netherlands score the winning goal in the World Cup or having a weekend to myself without work. Those dreams were put in perspective recently.
Last week, I visited the Water for Life Voices exhibition in the lobby of the UN Headquarters. It charts the progress the world has made in providing water and sanitation to millions of children, women and communities in the last decade. And it does so through people’s voices.
In one poster, Munsie Tampo, a village chief in Ngaliema, Democratic Republic of Congo said, “I actually had a dream that clean water came to our village. It’s something we’ve wished for such a long time now.”
That people still dream of getting something as simple as water is shocking. It’s unjust and unacceptable.
Chief Tampo isn’t alone though. Around the world, nearly 750 million people still don’t have access to improved water sources. Nearly 2 billion people drink water from a source that’s contaminated by faeces. These people are the most impoverished and the least resilient. They face the greatest challenges. They live in urban slums and rural villages. They’re trapped in conflict zones. They’re indigenous populations.
Despite significant progress the world is still failing millions of people, especially women and children. Every day, nearly 1,000 children under five die from preventable diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor sanitation, poor hygiene or unsafe drinking water.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — to be announced later this year — must not fail them. The SDGs must put the needs of the most vulnerable at their core, including their needs for water, sanitation and hygiene.
Goal six of the proposed SDGs is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Achieving this goal is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. Water, sanitation and hygiene are at the heart of the SDGs. They’re critical foundation blocks of development everywhere.
Think about it. How can we keep girls in school and reap the benefits of educating them if they drop out for want of toilets or water to keep themselves clean? How can we stop stunting if repeated bouts of diarrhoea, caused by unsafe drinking water, rob children of the nutrients they need to strengthen their minds and bodies? How can women seek and keep jobs when they have to collect water for hours every day? Estimates suggest that Sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water. That’s the same as a whole year of labour by France’s entire workforce.
That’s why we must expand access to water and sanitation beyond the home to schools, health clinics and public places.
This year to celebrate World Water Day, millions of people have joined a social media campaign to tell the world what #WaterIs to them. For those who can access water and sanitation, water is “dignity” or “nutrition.” For those less fortunate, it’s “keeping me out of school” or it’s “time-consuming.”
For all, it’s a right.
A woman from Bangladesh, part of the Water for Life Voices exhibition, said, “If we get safe water, that’s the real medication for us. Water is life.”
Let’s heed her words, carry her message and work together to make water and sanitation a reality for all.
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