�Climate change makes safe water for all challenging�
UNB
Unicef has warned that the push to bring safe water to millions around the world is going to be even more challenging due to climate change, which threatens both water supply and water safety for millions of children living in drought or flood-prone areas, reports UNB.
In 2015 at the end of the Millennium Development Goal era, all but 663 million people around the world had drinking water from improved sources - which are supposed to separate water from contact with excreta.
However, data from newly available testing technology show that an estimated 1.8 billion people may be drinking water contaminated by e-coli - meaning there is faecal material in their water, even from some improved sources, said Unicef on Monday issuing a media release on the eve of World Water Day. The safety concerns are rising due to climate change. When water becomes scarce during droughts, populations resort to unsafe surface water. At the other end of the scale, floods damage water and sewage treatment facilities, and spread faeces around, very often leading to an increase in water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
Higher temperatures brought on by climate change are also set to increase the incidence of water-linked diseases like malaria, dengue - and now Zika - as mosquito populations rise and their geographic reach expands. According to Unicef, most vulnerable are the nearly 160 million children under 5 years old globally who live in areas at high risk of drought. Around half a billion live in flood zones. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia.
Nearly 20,000 children in Bangladesh now have access to climate and disaster-resilient sources of water through an aquifer-recharge system which captures water during the monsoon season, purifies it, and stores it underground.
Now that we can test water more cheaply and efficiently than we were able to do when the MDGs were set, we are coming to terms with the magnitude of the challenge facing the world when it comes to clean water, said head of Unicefs global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes Sanjay Wijeserkera. With the new Sustainable Development Goals calling for safe water for everyone, were not starting from where the MDGs left off; it is a whole new ball game. One of the principal contributors to faecal contamination of water is poor sanitation.
Globally 2.4 billion people lack proper toilets and just under one billion of them defecate in the open. This means faeces can be so pervasive in many countries and communities that even some improved water sources become contaminated.
The World Water Day would be observed in the country as elsewhere in the world today in order to inform, engage and act on water related issues together for its sustenance.
The United Nations General Assembly designated March 22 as the World Water Day since 1993, following a resolution taken in Rio, Brazil, in 1992 when demands were made to designate a special day for water resources.
This year DPHE, DWASA, PSU, UNIC, UNICEF, The World Bank, WSSCC, Bangladesh WaSH Alliance and NGO Forum for Public Health are jointly observing the Day across the country in line with the UNs direction.
