Water is the basis of life on earth, the way man handles it endangers all life,
warns UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the first UN water conference in 46 years.
One in four people live without safe access to clean water, millions of women and girls walk long hours every day to fetch water, and three-quarters of all natural disasters are water-related.
Water scarcity and consequent droughts on the one hand, severe storms and floods on the other. The natural balance is disturbed, the ways to change it are well known,
but unpopular when it comes to winning the next election:
Reduce emissions, protect clean water sources, drastically reduce consumption. One way to get there is to preserve rainforests, prevent soil sealing, preserve biodiversity and rethink nutrition. Modern wastewater treatment and recycling also play an important role, but all of this is expensive.
Guterres is therefore proposing to the industrialized and emerging countries of the G20 a climate solidarity pact in which the richest should help the poor financially and technically. And international financial institutions must also be held accountable.