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MaximsNewsWATER
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UN
WARNS WATER WILL BECOME THE DOMINANT GLOBAL ISSUE THIS CENTURY: 21/8/2007 (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 21 August 2007 – Water
will become the dominant global issue this century, and the availability of its
supply could threaten the world’s social stability, warned Anna Tibaijuka, the
head of the U.N. agency tasked with promoting socially and environmentally
sustainable housing has warned.
Anna
Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT),
told yesterday’s opening of the Stockholm World Water Week that rapid
urbanization is placing enormous pressure on the availability of clean water and
other natural resources, especially for the poor.
She called
for “a fundamental change” in the way the world approaches water and
sanitation to ensure that enough clean water remains affordable for all for
future generations.
“There
is a need to arrive at a consensus on how the soaring water demands of the
cities and towns of the world could be met without compromising the needs of the
future generations,” she said at a symposium held in the Swedish capital.
UN
statistics indicate that, for the first time in history, this year more people
live in cities than in rural areas – and that by 2030 the global urban
population will reach 60 per cent.
“Homo
sapiens are slowly becoming homo urbanus,” Ms. Tibaijuka said, adding later
that “urbanization is a reality that we must face and turn to our advantage as
cities are the centres of economic and social development.”
She
decried what she called “the myth that the poor cannot afford to pay for
water. In reality, the urban poor are rarely connected to municipal supplies,
and pay exorbitant prices for water to private vendors, from four times to a
hundred times more than their affluent neighbours, who get subsidized water
piped to their homes.”
Ms.
Tibaijuka urged policymakers to work together more closely to ensure that there
are realistic pricing policies for water “that will allow its conservation,
discourage waste, and ensure that the poor will be able to meet their basic
needs at a price they can afford.”
The
UN-HABITAT chief said “the current level of investment in water and sanitation
in developing countries remains woefully inadequate,” and she recommended that
such nations examine new and innovative approaches, including more local
community and private sector involvement.
“The
private sector can bring significant efficiency gains and the much needed
investment funds to the water sector,” she said, noting that one of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
is a commitment to halve by 2015 the proportion of people who do not have safe
access to water and basic sanitation.
The
impact of climate change, and its apparent threat of more extreme weather
phenomena, further jeopardized the urban poor’s access to safe, drinkable
water and reliable sanitation, Ms. Tibaijuka said.
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Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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