The United Nations organised the first World Water Day in 1993. This year’s theme is water quality. World Water Day 2010 will thus encourage the international community to take a stand for sanitation and guarantee the quality of drinking water, with such activities as pollution prevention or the clean up and preservation of waterways and lakes.

According to the UN, water quality is deteriorating worldwide. The principal culprits include urbanisation due to population growth; the effluents of harmful organisms and industrial chemicals; agricultural use of fertilisers and pesticides; and droppings from livestock. The effects of climate change, particularly rising temperatures and changing rates of river flow, have also negatively affected water quality. The UN estimates that by 2050, 6.4 billion individuals will reside in cities (as opposed to 3.4 billion now). This will also degrade water quality.

According to the UN, 1.1 billion people still have no access to drinking water, and over 2.6 billion, especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, live without sanitation – some 39% of the world’s population. Protecting water quality must become a global priority, since 85% of the waste and effluent pollutants of human, domestic or industrial origin are discharged without any treatment into lakes and rivers.

Every day, 2 million tonnes of wastewater seep into groundwater tables. In developing countries, over 90% of raw sewage and 70% of untreated industrial wastes are dumped into surface waters. "It is far cheaper to protect water resources than to clean up after pollution", the UN points out.

The World Health Organisation puts the death toll from waterborne diseases (cholera, diarrhoea, hepatitis, typhus, etc.) at some 5 million people per year.

 

 

For more information: