The United Nations declares 2005-2015 as International Decade for Action on Water for Life, putting importance on water and how it will affect on the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal at the same time this is our 2010 Blog Action Day to put emphasize on water as basic and important to the lives of everyone. Mentioning the UN MDG, water plays a vital role on the 4 Goals, (MDG 1) Eradication of Hunger and Poverty, (MDG 4) Reduce Child Mortality, (MDG 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases and (MDG 7) Ensure Environmental Sustainability.
In our campaign to achieve the MDGs 1, 4 and 6, water plays a very important role, in Africa children and women who are basically front liners of hunger were forced to bring a water container in their back which weighs more than their weights in order to bring home safe water for their family. But because of the scourging heat of the sun and long walk, some of them end up drinking unsafe water that leads to waterborne diseases and leads to their death because even medical help can hardly reach them. Africa is one of the developing nations that are suffering of safe water scarcity. In the International Decade Action for Water for Life, Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General give emphasize on the importance of sanitation in regards to water. "Access to sanitation is deeply connected to virtually all the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those involving the environment, education, gender equality and the reduction of child mortality and poverty" he says.
In the Human Development Report 2006 of the United Nation Development Programme, in 2006 there’s only 62% of world population has access to improved sanitation which includes clean water, but the sad part is on the 2015 even we reach the half of sanitation in the MDG Target 10 there is still 1.7 billion people without access of basic sanitation. When we talk about sanitation in water as our campaign for the MDGs 4, 6 and 7, water doesn’t only thirst quencher, but it connects to human hygiene, as mention in the International Decade Action on Water for Life, they emphasized on water as basic and improved sanitation.
Connecting Water and Sanitation, we end up on one of the major reason why water became unsafe and hinders the achievement of sustainable environment. Water pollution is the product of human irresponsibility. Human throws their waste on the water and pollutes it with chemicals, in the end water like seas and rivers as basic source of food can no longer sustain our needs. Sometimes, those chemicals and garbage thrown in the sea and rivers blocks the flow of water, we Filipinos saw the wrath of Ondoy and Pepeng that kills hundreds and leaves thousands homeless.
Sometimes we missed the basics and sometimes we see it not that important because it is not popular as it not shown on headlines on media. Water is a basic human need, but most of us don’t give importance on the conservation and preservation of water. Sadly, for countries who neglect it, doesn’t see how it is precious more than gold in other countries that is facing drought and kills each other just to have water. Let Blog Action Day on Water, be an eye opener along with the campaigns of UNICEF, WWF, GreenPeace, UNDP, WFP and other NGOs that water conservation and preservation is now, not tomorrow neither next month and next year.
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