Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

5 0 4 / F I T T I N G T H E P I E C E S T O G E T H E RThe World’s Water Crisis: Fitting the Pieces TogetherTHOSE AFFECTED MOST BY THE WATER CRISIS are the world’s poor. It is they who suffer most immediately fromunsafe water, lack of sanitation, food insecurity and from the effects of pollution and a degraded environment.Without representation or any voice in social, economic and political affairs, they are often powerless to improvetheir situation. This position of powerlessness only reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty, poor health, insecurelivelihood and vulnerability to risks of every kind.Water and PovertyThe plight of the poorThis book has highlighted the plight of the poor in many areas:people who are water-poor; people who are sanitation-poor; peoplewho are food-poor; people who are electricity-poor; people who areincome-poor; people who are kept in poverty because they live indisaster-prone areas; and people who, being poor, lack a voice inwater governance and water management. What we have still todetermine are the numbers of people who suffer two or more ofthe different dimensions of water poverty, as illustrated in figure23.1. These figures will not be known until integrated water povertysurveys, such as the Human Development Index, are able to capturethe multiple burdens of individuals. There are promising initiatives,but the assessment remains elusive. The central point is that thereFigure 23.1: Multiple burdens of water povertyPeople lacking accessto safe waterPeople lacking accessto safe sanitationPeople sufferingmalnutrition1.1 billion 2.4 billion800 millionPeople lackinghousehold energyPeople affected bynatural disasters per yearPeople dyingfrom malaria per year2 billion 211 million1 millionGeneric image to represent the number of people experiencing water poverty in morethan one of its multiple dimensions (3 dimensions only are illustrated)Waterpoverty 'B'Water poverty 'A'? ???Waterpoverty 'C'are very many who are poor, and in many ways at the same time. Itis more or less the same two billion people who lack three, four oreven five of the basic levels of service and security, and who livewith the daily consequences.Problems of poverty are thus inextricably linked with those ofwater – its availability, its proximity, its quantity and its quality.They are linked to all the challenge areas, because water problemsare people problems. They are sustainable development problems.For this reason, they are the composite parts of the wider goal ofattaining water security in the twenty-first century set by TheHague Ministerial Declaration. As such, poverty issues are thecompelling element of an overall water agenda. For those concernedwith the realization of broad water policy, these issues representthe bigger picture – a picture that is composed both of the broadand the singular, of overarching goals and specific targets, ofcompeting demands and particular interests, of multiple demands ontime and finances and of priorities. It is a bigger picture thatdemands integration, coordination, compromise and trade-offs.Presenting this bigger picture serves different purposes, includingshowing how water management, in order to be effective and adoptan integrated approach, must simultaneously address the followingthree areas:■ the contribution of water to wider economic and social objectives;■ the management of water within its traditional sectoral context;and■ the wise management of water resources in support of all wateruses, individually, together and in competition.Source: WWAP Secretariat.Fitting the pieces together actually helps us to gain the clarityneeded in order to make difficult strategic choices – to decidewhere to place our resources so as to have maximum impact. Ithelps point the way forward.