Prioritise access to safe water

WATER is life.
Water is one of the most important substances on Earth.
All plants and animals must have water to survive.
If there was no water, there would be no life on earth.
Water is the core of sustainable development and it critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself.
It is vital for reducing the global burden of disease and improving the health, welfare and productivity of populations.
Tomorrow is World Water Day.
It is about celebrating water and raising awareness of the global water crisis and a core focus of the observance is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Water and sanitation for all by 2030.
The theme of World Water Day this year is valuing water.
The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment.
If we overlook any of these values, we risk mismanaging this finite, irreplaceable resource.
In Papua New Guinea, only 40 per cent of people have access to safe drinking water, one of the lowest rates in the Pacific Islands.
PNG is one of 37 hotspot countries in the world that faces extremely high water vulnerabilities, according to a new analysis released by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) globally ahead of World Water Day tomorrow.
The analysis is part of Unicef’s water security for all initiative identifies areas where physical water scarcity risks overlap with poor water service levels. Communities living in these areas depend on surface water, unimproved sources, or where it can take more than 30 minutes to collect water.
The report says PNG’s estimated 8.5 million people were among those with the least access to safe water supply in the world.
Waterborne diseases are rampant in PNG because the majority of the country’s rural population is drinking unsafe water from sources like surface running water and piped and well water that are exposed to contaminants.
One in five children globally do not have enough water to meet their everyday needs, says Unicef’s executive director Henrietta Fore.
Fore said a projection made by a 2017 Unicef report indicated that almost 1 in 4 children globally would live in areas of extremely high water stress by 2040.
Children and families in vulnerable communities would be hit the hardest in this world water crisis.
In PNG, development partners are supporting the Government’s efforts to address the water crisis.
One such effort is a four-year water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) project, also called the Klinpela Komuniti Projek facilitated by Unicef, through funding support provided by the European Union, is positively impacting on the productivity, health and well-being of up to 160,000 people including 40,000 children in 200 schools, 36 health centres and 800 communities in four districts.
The physical world of water is closely bound up with the socio-political world, with water often a key factor in managing risks such as famine, epidemics, inequalities and political instability.
Access to safe water must be a national concern because the outcomes of unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene that manifest in child illnesses and deaths have many other serious consequences connected to nutrition, health, education, poverty and economic growth and development.
Water means different things to different people.