A three-day United Nations water conference kicks off today in New York. UNESCO warns that even where there is still an abundance of water today, droughts are threatening as a result of climate change.
The three-day UN water conference in New York begins today, Wednesday, on Water Day. Access to water has been a human right since 2010 and the “2030 Agenda” for sustainable development adopted in 2012 established as one of its goals to make this right available to all people by 2030. Drinking water should be “perfect and affordable” until then, it has been said – but the implementation of those plans has since drifted further afield.
According to a UNESCO study, the global scarcity of fresh water will continue to increase. This is a consequence of increasing environmental and economic difficulties combined with increasing freshwater pollution, “Depending on the season, water is becoming scarce as a result of climate change, both in places where it is still abundant today – such as Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America – as well as exacerbated where it is already scarce – such as the Middle East and the Sahel.” On an annual average, 10% of the world’s population lives in countries with high or critical risk of water scarcity problems.
Critical stage for the global water situation
The conference, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands at UN Headquarters, aims to highlight the importance of water. The Minister of Agriculture, Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP), who will also travel to New York, underlined beforehand that water is “a key element in achieving the goals of sustainable development and is decisive for the health and prosperity of the entire world” . However, the UN Water Conference is taking place at a critical time in a worsening global water situation. Two billion people around the world still lack access to safe drinking water and almost half of the world’s population, 3.6 billion people, lack safe sanitation.”
The UN Decade of Action for Water, which began on 22 March 2018 and ends in 2028, will also be discussed. An improvement in the exchange of knowledge regarding water and water protection, as well as the communication of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be achieved during this period. The New York Water Conference is the first major meeting since 1977 to focus exclusively on water.
The longest drought in history
The NGO Oxfam also published a study on Wednesday, according to which about one in five people in drought-stricken East Africa – that is, 33.5 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia alone – do not have safe drinking water. enough. And the forecasts are grim, according to the relief and development organization, because according to forecasts, there will be no rain in May for the sixth consecutive month. The current drought is the longest since records began.
Extreme weather events make water scarcer, more unpredictable, more polluted or all at once, and the impact on the entire water cycle threatens sustainable development, biodiversity and people’s access to water and sanitation, the UN said. . According to the current report
(APA)