Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

T H E W O R L D ’ S W A T E R C R I S I S / 5THE FACT THAT THE WORLD FACES A WATER CRISIS has become increasingly clear in recent years. Challenges remainwidespread and reflect severe problems in the management of water resources in many parts of the world. Theseproblems will intensify unless effective and concerted actions are taken, as is made clear in the World WaterVision (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 2000, p. xxi):This increase in water withdrawals implies that water stress will increase significantly in 60% of the world,including large parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Will this lead to more frequent and more seriouswater crises? Assuming business as usual: yes.Water, People and Sustainable DevelopmentThe ‘business as usual’ qualification is important. We cannot carry onas we do, and many aspects of water resources management mustchange. This is recognized in the United Nations (UN) MillenniumDeclaration (2000), which again called upon all members of the UNto stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resourcesby developing water management strategies at theregional, national and local levels which promote bothequitable access and adequate supplies.Water is essential for life. We are all aware of its necessity, fordrinking, for producing food, for washing – in essence for maintainingour health and dignity. Water is also required for producing manyindustrial products, for generating power, and for moving people andgoods – all of which are important for the functioning of a modern,developed society. In addition, water is essential for ensuring theintegrity and sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystems.None of these facts are in dispute. And yet, we all too oftentake the availability of water for granted, as if there existed anabundance of the resource. This assumption has now beenchallenged and found to be untenable. In recent years theavailability of and access to freshwater have been highlighted asamong the most critical natural resource issues facing the world. TheUN environmental report GEO 2000 states that global water shortagerepresents a full-scale emergency, where ‘the world water cycleseems unlikely to be able to adapt to the demands that will be madeof it in the coming decades’ (UNEP, 1999). Similarly, the World WideFund for Nature (WWF) emphasizes that ‘freshwater is essential tohuman health, agriculture, industry and natural ecosystems, but isnow running scarce in many regions of the world’ (WWF, 1998).Complacency is not an option. Water consumption has almostdoubled in the last fifty years. A child born in the developed worldconsumes thirty to fifty times the water resources of one in thedeveloping world (UNFPA, 2002). Meanwhile, water qualitycontinues to worsen. The number of people dying from diarrhoealdiseases is equivalent to twenty fully-loaded jumbo jets crashingevery day, with no survivors. These statistics illustrate the enormityof the problems facing the world with respect to its water resources,and the startling disparities that exist in its utilization.This book assesses the world’s water situation. The water crisisthat exists is set to worsen despite continuing debate over the veryexistence of such a crisis. For many years over the past decades,6,000 people, and mainly children under five, have died every day.Descriptions more severe than ‘a crisis’ have been associated withevents in which 3,000 people have lost their lives in a single day.What phrase can be used for the recurrence of higher loss of lifeevery day of every year over decades? That the world is in a watercrisis is undeniable, and the time to take action is now.What are the forms of this water crisis, what difference will itmake to people’s lives, what forces are causing it and what can wedo about it? This chapter paints the picture: it examines theimportance of water in people’s lives, identifies main concerns andtrends in water resources and their uses, and discusses the mainfactors that are causing changes to the availability and use of thismost vital of resources. It is certain that the water crisis is a crisisthat manifests itself in the everyday lives of billions of people. Indifferent ways and in different places, the nature of the water crisisis a crisis of lost lives and lost livelihoods.Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 (UN, 1992, p. 275), adopted at theEarth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, defined the overall goal of waterpolicy developments:Water is needed in all aspects of life. The generalobjective is to make certain that adequate supplies ofwater of good quality are maintained for the entirepopulation of this planet, while preserving thehydrological, biological and chemical functions ofecosystems, adapting human activities within thecapacity limits of nature and combating vectors of waterrelateddiseases.The task for water policy-makers thus becomes a part of the widerchallenge of achieving sustainable development. We must keep afocus on the first principle of the Rio Declaration: