Celebrating water for life : the International Decade for Action 2005-2015 : World Day for Water 2005 22 March : an advocacy guide. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. – 35 p. – 6 ref.
This booklet aims to communicate the purpose and aim of the UN International Decade for Action Water for Life 2005–2015. It introduces key issues relevant to water: the current challenges and situation, some facts and figures. The main areas covered are: water for health, biodiversity and environment, agriculture and energy. Cross-cutting issues are: a gender perspective on water and sanitation, and water and the MDGs. The booklet provides suggestions and recommendations of what can be achieved in the Decade. It includes sheets on the key steps in the planning process of water for life activities: collect information; develop key messages; work with the media; and assess impacts of efforts made. The booklet calls on organizations to transform their local or national statistics into key messages and stories that should support successes, identify gaps and set out the next steps in their Water for Life campaign.
The decade between 2005 and 2015 are critical years to focus global attention on what should be obvious: water for life. Apart from demonstrating your personal commitment to organizing events around World Water Day (WWD), it is going to be vital to make 2005 and leading up to 2015 remarkable years in ensuring that everyone is aware of the urgency of the goals to be achieved. Every event and every voice on every occasion will be vital in ensuring new energy and commitment to turning the tide on a situation we can no longer abide.
Each year more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to resort to using potentially harmful sources of water. This perpetuates a silent humanitarian crisis that kills some 3900 children every day and thwarts progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The consequences of our collective failure to tackle this problem are the dimmed prospects for the billions of people locked in a cycle of poverty and disease.
he root of this underlying catastrophe lies in these plain, grim facts: 4 of every 10 people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine and nearly 2 in 10 have no source of safe drinking-water. To help end this appalling state of affairs, the MDGs include a specific target (number 10) to cut in half, by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation. In addition, the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation recently recognized that integrated development and management of water resources are crucial to the success or failure of all the MDGs, as water is central to the livelihood systems of the poor.
The Water for Life Decade starts on World Water Day 2005, 22 March; it is a unique occasion not just to highlight the magnitude of the problem, but also to bring all stakeholders together to apply solutions that work. Whatever kind of events you decide to organize, we hope this will help you leverage the maximum impact, however modest your budget.
Celebrating water for life - World Water Day
World Water Day: Sanitation
Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Water Day: Sanitation
This year, within the context of the UN International Year of Sanitation, World Water Day focuses on the critical theme of Sanitation. I would like to take this oportunity to renew UNESCO’s commitment to promote science and knowledge for the sustainable use of the world’s freshwater resources and reiterate the crucial importance of providing safe drinking water and sanitation to all.
One of the greatest challenges faced by humankind is to improve the well-being of the 2.6 billion people – which account for half the population of the developing world–lacking access to basic sanitation. Despite increasing rates of sanitation coverage worldwide and significant efforts by governments and the international community, progress towards the MDG target of halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation has been slow and uneven. According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2007, an estimated 1.6 billion people must acquire access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015 to meet the MDG target on sanitation. If trends since 1990 continue, the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million people.
Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation services is a pre-requisite for achieving the MDGs on poverty, health, gender and environmental sustainability.
Improved sanitation will have a beneficial impact on both human health and the environment. Primary benefits of the provision of sanitation services include enhanced public health, significant reduction of water-borne diseases and breaking of their transmission routes, and through this the prevention of premature death of millions of people. Better sanitation also results in enhanced human development, dignity, privacy and safety, particularly of women and girls, and greater dvancement in gender equality.
The environmental benefits of sanitation are often overlooked. Direct disposal of vast amounts of untreated wastewater and human waste poses a great threat to the
health and function of aquatic ecosystems. Improved wastewater management and sanitation will bring enormous benefits for the protection of water resources from
pollution by pathogens and other contaminants.
There is now an urgent need to address the issue of sanitation in a sustainable manner, involving all stakeholders and, most importantly, local governments and communities, households and investors. Significant advancement has been made in the development of low-cost technologies for sanitation, overcoming the technology barrier which was regarded, in the past, as a main cause of slow progress in ensuring sanitation for all. Mainstreaming sanitation at the national level and prioritizing sanitation in national policies and strategies is a starting point to accelerate progress. Strengthened international partnerships will help leverage investment and provide new technological options.
Through its water-related programmes and activities, UNESCO is actively contributing towards achieving the MDG on water and sanitation. UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme addresses the issue of sanitation in the broader context of sustainable urban water management, by adopting a holistic approach to managing the urban water cycle and by exploring the implications of new approaches to sanitation. UNESCO supports research and capacity building in the fields related to sanitation through postgraduate research and training programmes at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.
Within the framework of the International Year of Sanitation, UNESCO reaffirms its
commitment to strengthen efforts in tackling water-related sanitation problems through the promotion, dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information and by developing human and institutional capacities. In support of UN-wide initiatives such as UN-Water, World Water Day and the International Year of Sanitation, UNESCO stands ready to strengthen collaboration with Member States and the international community in sanitation-related fields.
On World Water Day, I would like to call on all concerned to work together to achieve the vital MDG targets for water and sanitation. It is my firm belief that further progress in sanitation can only be made through strong commitment and concerted action by all stakeholders and at all levels.
World Water Day 2008: Sanitation
Water Day, World Water Day, Sanitation
About World Water Day
The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) contained in Chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21. States were invited to devote the Day, as appropriate in the national context, to concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the publication and diffusion of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources and the implementation of the recommendations of Agenda 21.
World Water Day
Water Day, World Water Day
The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.
The UN General Assembly declared the year 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Consequently, World Water Day 2008, which will be celebrated this year on Thursday 20 March, will highlight issues on sanitation in accordance with the Year. People around the world are encouraged to celebrate the day to draw attention to the world’s sanitation challenge.
