Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

P R O T E C T I N G E C O S Y S T E M S F O R P E O P L E A N D P L A N E T / 1 2 9If you eat from the river, you must protect it,and if you drink from the river you must conserve it.Saying of the Karen peopleAHEALTHY AND UNPOLLUTED NATURAL ENVIRONMENT isessential to human well-being and sustainable development.Our rivers and wetlands – and the communities of plants, fish,birds, insects and wildlife they support – are an integral part of ourlives and provide the resource base that helps us meet a multitude ofneeds. But as this chapter shows, the world’s freshwater ecosystemsare under great pressure. We use them as dumping grounds for waste,we alter their natural flow by building dams, diversions and canals, andwe drain them for agriculture and other uses. How extensive is thedamage? Is it reversible? What are the trends? The chapter reports onmany local and national efforts to clean up and protect our waterresources, but the global picture remains disturbing.