Fresh water, fresh thinking
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY is celebrated each year on 5 June and is considered one of the United Nation's main vehicles for generating world-wide awareness of environmental issues.
This year's theme is "Water: Two billion people are dying for it", which ties in with the other UN projects "International Year of Freshwater, 2003" and the World Water Day which occurred last March.
On World Environment Day UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that, "the statistics are disturbing. One person in six lives without regular access to drinking water. Over twice that number -- 2.4 billion people -- lack access to adequate sanitation. Water-related diseases kill a child every eight seconds, and are responsible for eight per cent of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world..."
As Mohamed El-Ashry, CEO and chairman of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) pointed out, "people are already feeling the consequences of water resource mismanagement. When water ecosystems are being damaged by over-fishing and pollution, the food security and health of people in many regions is threatened... New predictions of increased droughts and floods underscore the need for water resources management to rise to the top of the sustainable development agenda."
Annan concluded that, "our challenge is to provide water services to all, especially the poor; to maximise water productivity, especially in agriculture, which accounts for the lion's share of global water use yet is often inefficient... Providing adequate sanitation and sustainable freshwater supplies will also require significant new investments in infrastructure and technology. To meet the agreed targets it is estimated that annual spending on safe drinking water and sanitation will have to more than double."
For the first time ever, the main events celebrating World Environment Day will be held in the Arab world, in Beirut.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 5 -11 June 2003 (Issue No. 641)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/641/sc2.htm