Agro Perspectiva

World Water Day: UN highlights water, energy links for sustainable development

24.03.2014 08:02 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — To mark World Water Day on Mar 22, the United Nations highlighted the key role that water and energy play in economic development and the eradication of poverty worldwide, and calling for strong measures to ensure their efficient and equitable use, UN Website reports. On Mar 22, in his message for the Day, focused this year on the interdependence between the management of water and energy, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that «they interact with each other in ways that can help — or hinder — our efforts to build stable societies and lives of dignity for all.» According to the 2014 World Water Development Report, which was released earlier by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UN Water, some 768 million people do not have access to an improved source of water, and 2.5 billion do not have access to appropriate sanitation. The report further reveals that places where people do not have adequate access to water largely coincide with those where people have no electric power. It goes on to describe the various ways in which water and energy relate to each other, explaining, for example, that energy is needed for the collection, transportation and treatment of water, and that at the same time, water is required in the production and extraction of fossil fuels. Likewise, droughts make energy shortages worse, while lack of electricity reduces farmers’ ability to irrigate their fields. «On World Water Day, let us pledge to develop the policies needed to ensure that sustainable water and energy are secured for the many and not just the few,» said the UN chief. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) estimates that approximately 70 per cent of the world’s water resources are used for agriculture and warns that by 2025 two-thirds of the population could struggle to get access to this resource. UNICEF estimates that 1,400 children under five die every day from diarrhoeal diseases due to lack of safe water, and adequate sanitation and hygiene. The children’s rights organization further estimates, along with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) that 10 countries are home to almost two-thirds of the global population without access to improved drinking water sources: China (108 million), India (99 million), Nigeria (63 million), Ethiopia (43 million), Indonesia (39 million), Democratic republic of the Congo (37 million), Bangladesh (26 million), United Republic of Tanzania (22 million), Kenya (16 million) and Pakistan (16 million).