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Woman returning home after collection of shrimp larva. The majority of people here are below the poverty line and their main occupations are agriculture, fishing, fish farming and daily labour in Kathamari, Shyamnagar, Satkhira, Bangladesh. September 2018.
TIM WAINWRIGHT Chief Executive UK, WaterAid
One in ten people globally do not have clean water close to home. One in four people do not have a toilet. We must step up to the challenge of providing safe water and toilets to everyone, everywhere, by 2030.
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veryone understands that water is vital for life – but it is also so much more than that. Having a safe and reliable water supply not only saves lives but can also change lives forever. Unless you are able to count on having clean water to drink close to home, it is virtually impossible to escape poverty. Without toilets that protect your family and community, you will spend more time sick a nd car i ng for t hose w it h waterborne diseases, making it harder to build a brighter future. These three basic ser vices of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene underpin all progress in development and are at the heart of what we do at WaterAid.
Yet in 2020, one in ten people do not have even the most basic supply of clean water close to home, and a staggering two billion people do not have a decent toilet. This has a huge impact on the most vulnerable in society. Women and girls often shoulder the burden and waste hours every day collecting water, thus missing out on the opportunity to go to school or earn a living. Without a plumbed indoor toilet, women and girls are forced to sneak outside in the dark, which not only impacts on their dignity, but puts them at risk of harassment or attack. Girls are more likely to miss school while on their periods when their schools do not have a private,
safe toilet. And, tragically, one child under five dies every two minutes from diarrhoea caused by dirty water and lack of sanitation. The first line of defence Having access to resilient water services is one of the first lines of defence against climate change. This means being able to drink safe water every day, whatever the weather. As the warming planet increases pressure on already scarce water resources, communities which lack access to safely managed water supplies will not be able to respond to the unpredictable and severe impacts of climate variability. Increasing global temperatures threaten to reverse positive gains
© JAMES MCCAULEY
Putting water and sanitation at the heart of the climate crisis
made in improving access to clean water and decent sanitation over the previous decades – and risk trapping people in poverty for many years to come. We still have a chance to change the situation Developed countries have a moral responsibility to reduce their use of fossil fuels much more quickly. But we must also act now to protect communities that are already fighting the impact of climate change. The single most important thing we can do to help people face these dangers is to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to safely managed water and sanitation. This is not only a human right,
but also forms part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which aims to bring clean water and sustainable sanitation to everyone, everywhere, by 2030. But time is running out. Far too little is being done, by either national governments or donors, to acknowledge the importance of clean water as a climate change defence and ma ke t he urgent, long-term investments needed to help the most vulnerable people in the world.
The climate crisis is a water crisis The climate crisis is a water crisis. It is only when we realise this that we can come up with solutions that are effective enough to make a real difference.
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hen temperatures rise, the water cycle gets more and more impacted, with increasingly dramatic consequences for nature and humans. To tackle this, we must change the way we think about global warming and start treating it as the water crisis it is. To win the climate race, we need a new approach – water The climate crisis has hit faster and harder than scientists predicted, meaning that we now only have time for the most effective solutions. To keep global warming below 1. 5 deg rees Celsius, the global community needs to upgrade its
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climate commitments fivefold in the coming decade. A l l c o u nt r ie s w i l l n e e d t o make water a top priority in their nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, since the most disast rous consequences of the climate crisis are linked to impacts on the water cycle, with more unpredictable rainfalls and a growing number of floods and droughts. Water solutions can both reduce emissions and make nature and societies better able to cope with the unavoidable temperature rise.
Good water governance is tomorrow’s biggest challenge Competition over dwindling water resources could get more and more fierce as the global population increases, the climate crisis escalates and civil strife soars. How water is managed will be a question of life and death for individuals, societies and nature. Since hardly any human activity is possible without water, different groups and interests could easily become pit ted aga in st each other, with potentially disastrous consequences for social stability, equality and our chances to combat global warming.
TORGNY HOLMGREN Executive Director, Stockholm International Water Institute
Good water governance is crucial, since it recognises the true value of water, encourages innovation, tackles pollution and waste, and ensures that both humans and nature get their fair share of limited water resources. Using the climate crisis to unleash a new era of innovation We may be on the cusp of a promising new era of social and environmental innovation. Thanks to important advances in Earth monitoring, we have a much better understanding of how different natural processes and ecosystems are connected.
This knowledge, coupled with new digital tools, makes it possible to develop industry, energy and a g r ic u lt u r e i n a mu c h m o r e sustainable direction, with less water and energy input. We must use this opportunity to set the world on a new course, where water is at the core of climate policy.
Read more at globalcause.co.uk MEDIAPLANET
