Rahma Ahmed
By Ahmed Rahma
As World Water Day is being celebrated across the globe on Monday, the United Nation (UN) has called for greater investment into “the vital resource of water”.
The call was made by the body in its World Water Development Report 2021 compiled by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and published today.
In the report, it was stated that recognising, measuring and expressing the worth of water and incorporating it into decision-making was fundamental to achieving sustainable and equitable water resource management as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“All too often, the value of water, or its full suite of multiple values, is not prominent in decision-making at all,” the report said.
According to the report, the value of water to society is underpinned by infrastructure built for storing or moving it which has called for more investment into water management.
However, some infrastructure projects represent vanity projects and are ultimately ineffective, the report stated.
The UN said waste and pollution of water present additional challenges, stating that the coronavirus pandemic has hit people living in settlements or slums hardest, the authors wrote.
Globally, more than three billion people and two out of five healthcare facilities lack adequate access to handwashing facilities key in preventing the spread of illnesses like COVID-19.
The report called water “a basic human need, required for drinking and to support sanitation and hygiene, sustaining life and health.”
The authors also called for new ways of looking at the value of water and a more holistic approach to dealing with it: “Water clearly has value.
“In some perspectives, the value of water is infinite, since life does not exist without it and there is no replacement for it.”
About World Water Day
The World Water Day, held on March 22 every year since 1993, focuses on the importance of freshwater.
World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
