How does one celebrate a day dedicated to the most critical ingredient that sustains all life on earth? Tough question. The least is to acknowledge it, but how many of us realize the value of the glass of water we gulp thirstily?
Do we realize how the freshwater we drink has been around for millions of years, but is fast vanishing?
Future predictions suggest that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.
This year the focus of the Water Day was trans-boundary waters and the shared opportunities.
With population on the rise, water available on the fall, concerns over water conflicts are high but some reason for cheer comes from the UN website that says, ‘The total number of water-related interactions between nations are weighted towards cooperation. There have been 507 conflict-related events as opposed to 1,228 cooperative ones. This implies that violence over water is not a strategically rational, effective or economically viable option for countries. In the 20th century, only seven minor skirmishes took place between nations over shared water resources, while over 300 treaties were signed during the same period of time.
Organisation and institutions are doing some good work. For instance, WaterAid and Ecover launched last year a partnership to help 14,750 people in northern Hintalo Wajerat region of Ethiopia gain access to safe water and sanitation.
More and more areas of the world are becoming drought-prone, in turn driving the populations away. For agriculture, water scarcity holds out serious implications. As also for energy.
What are you doing to save water? May we know.
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