Water Is A Human Right - Advocacy Project.pdf

7/30/2019 Water Is A Human Right - Advocacy Project.pdf

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Water Is A Human Right

Lack of safe water is a public health emergency,draining developing countries of health,

productivity, gender equality, education andhope. Over 1 billion people on our planet do not

have access to safe, clean drinking water-something every person who lives in an

industrialized nation takes for granted with eachswig of the unappreciatedly precious substance.


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Water is a precious thing. Of all of the water on Earth, only 2.5%is freshwater. Of this freshwater, 70% is locked away in polarice caps, 30% lies underground, and a mere 0.007% is actuallyavailable for human consumption. Unfortunately, a large portionof that .007% is too contaminated, unreachable, or expensivefor many populations to drink.


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Water, Earth's most precious resource, serves simultaneouslyas habitat, nourishment and cleanser. Brazil's Pantanal River,for example, is home to over 5,000 different species(including humans) who rely on its water for life. It is notonly a vital waterway for man, but an essential filter for the

impurities he leaves behind.


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Underground aquifers, dozens of miles deep and hundredsof miles wide, are the Earth's second-largest reserve offresh water. Filled over billions of years, they are todaybeing drained at two to four times their natural rechargerate.


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The Aral Sea has lost two-thirds of its volume becuase itssource rivers were diverted for cotton irrigation duringthe Soviet era. Once the fourth largest lake in the world,it is now a dusty graveyard of rusting shipwrecks.


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Water is life. Yet 4,500 children die each day from waterborne

illnesses. One in 6 people lacks access to safe water and fewer thanhalf of all households have sanitation facilities. THe UN hasproposed Millennium Development Goal 7- reducing by half theproportion of people without these essentials - is not onlyattainable but critical to the lives of children.


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More than 2 billion people worldwide rely on wells fortheir water. As water tables continue to drop, manydevote countless hours to collecting and hauling thevaluable resource. The pits frequented on Pate Island byKenyan villagers in this photo are less than 300 feet fromthe ocean's edge, yielding a brackish but drinkable

water.


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Girls and women bear the largest share of the worlds water

burden. They walk on average 6 km a day, carrying 20litres of water, missing out on education and productivework. The lack of opportunities for women and girls due towater collection severely furthers the cycle of poverty,overpopulation and unsustainable development in

developing countries worldwide.


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The lack of fresh water in this village located in Peruhas reduced the community to slum-like conditions.Children are uneducated due to lack of facilities andlive in an extremely unhealthy environment.


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Disgusted students of Miyun elementary school inBeijing discover the dirty condition of a watersample taken from their local reservoir. Twenty-fiveto thirty-three percent of Chinese do not haveaccess to safe drinking water.


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Residents of a slum in Delhi scramble for the water thatis delivered to them daily. The camp is home toapproximately 4,000 migrant workers, but lacks a cleanwater supply, so they are dependant on public as well asprivate trucks to bring it to them.


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Ice fishermen work their lines on Russia's UralRiver, in the shadow of Lenin Steelworks. Worriedthat the fish are too contaminated to eat, many ofthese winter anglers send their catch to distantmarkets for sale, exacerbating the depletion ofworld fisheries and unsafe world food distribution.


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In the poorest countries, 50% of people lack safe

water due in large part to failures inenvironmental and waste-management policies.The above photo shows a small boy fishing forwhat will be undoubtedly contaminated shrimp ina sewage-infested pond in Haiti.


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Because water in Mumbai, India is too expensive for thepoor, many residents of this slum rely on leaks found orcreated, in the massive tubes that carry water to moreaffluent neighborhoods for their own water supply. Thepoor of the city avoid the garbage and human wastesurrounding their dwellings by walking on top of the

pipelines.


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Two Sudanese boys drink with specially fitted plastic tubesprovided by the Carter Center to guard against the water-borne larvae which are responsible for guinea wormdisease. The program has distributed millions of tubes andhas reduced the spread of this debilitating disease by 70%.


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Rural inhabitants are far less likely than city dwellers tohave even basic toilets. In South Asia, only 5% of ruralhouseholds have access to sanitation.


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The waters of the Niger River Delta are used for defecating,bathing, fishing and garbage. Despite the fact that oilcompanies have removed more than $400 billion of wealthout of the wetland, local residents have little to show for it.They remain in absurd levels of poverty without access to

proper bathroom facilities.


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Children in developing countries are afraid of usingouthouses and the like because they are dark andsmelly and they fear falling into the hole. For thisschool in India, WaterAid, a British NGO dedicated todelivering safe domestic water, provided funding tobuild child-friendly toilets.


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Studies show that girlsare more likely to attendand finish school whenthey have access tolatrines that separate andequal to boys facilities.Building facilities inschools for girls is a hugestep in breaking the cycleof poverty in waterscarce developingnations.


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The Chilukwa Primary School in Malawi provides its

students with a sound education, but until recentlythe school had no running water or bathrooms. ThePeer Water Exchange, a platform for crafting localsolutions to specific water problems, helped securefunding for a local organization to build acommunity tap, latrines and bathing facilities.


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A lack of clean waterusually results in a lack of

sanitation. With safe watergood hygiene can bepromoted. Simple handwashing can help reducediarrhoea cases of death inwater poor communities by

up to 40%.


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Filtering water througha clean cloth helpsprevent guinea worm

disease, a waterborneillness that used toclaim thousands oflives every day, noweradicated in all but 12African nations.


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For over 40 years, UNICEF has delivered safe water andsanitation to help children survive and thrive. The Mark IIpump, developed in India, has transformed village life forall ages across Asia and Africa.


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Sanitation, the controlling of human waste,

requires clean water access as well as thoroughplanning. In Zambia, community leaders draw a mapof the village to determine latrine sites, hoping toeradicate water-borne illnesses caused by a waste

contaminated water supply.


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This Vietnamese boyrefreshes himself with some

water that's beeninexpensively provided tohis community following thecreation of a water systemfunded by Blue Planet RunFoundation and PWX.

Hopefully one day in thenear future every child canenjoy such a luxury. Withthe help of donations oftime and money by peoplelike you, the human right to

safe water can finally berealized!

Documents

Water Is A Human Right - Advocacy Project.pdf