World Water Day 2023

Fresh water: a diminishing global resource. (Source: National Geographic)

Global Reality in 2023 from Pure Water for the World:

• 1 in 4 people on our planet lacks reliable access to safely managed drinking water.
• Waterborne illnesses continue to be a leading cause of death, with an estimated 829,000 people dying each year from water-related diarrheal illnesses.

Drinking water: something that’s easy to assume is always available. Yes, a few American cities have viciously caused their citizens to be denied this essential need, such as Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi. However, most of us in the US don’t give drinking water a second thought. The unfortunate fact is that one quarter of the world’s population lack safe drinking water. 

This week is the United Nations’ World Water Day, March 23. The official website describes the global situation:

“Dysfunction throughout the water cycle is undermining progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, disasters to peace. … Billions of people and countless schools, businesses, healthcare centres, farms and factories are being held back because their human rights to water and sanitation have not yet been fulfilled.”

Catastrophes Cause Water Crises

Wars, earthquakes, overcrowded cities, and many other misfortunes result in a lack of safe water for drinking and all other purposes. Although it’s been over a month since the earthquake in Turkey, clean water remains a serious problem for the huge number of people whose homes and cities were reduced to rubble. Relief efforts have brought drinking water to some areas; others are still in great need, such as the province of Hatay (source). Relief organizations include the Planet Water Foundation:

“Planet Water Foundation, a leading non-profit organization focused on providing access to clean, safe water, is deploying 12 of its disaster response water filtration systems in Türkiye as the country continues calls for global support to provide drinking water to earthquake damaged communities.”

 

Water was airlifted to Turkish earthquake survivors. (source)

The war in Ukraine has caused severe disruption of the supplies of safe water for the battle-ground cities. While some damage to water resources is a side-effect of the fighting, Russian invaders are also inflicting intentional damage on water resources as well as on other infrastructure. Some consequences of the fighting: “flooding of large areas due to dam breaches, pollution from untreated waste water spills, dumped ammunition, an increase in mine water levels, and a significant decline in the quantity and quality of water for drinking and agricultural purposes.” (Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-war-ukraine-threatens-freshwater-resources.html)

In Ukraine: collecting drinking water from a distribution point (source: NYT)

Climate Change and Water Supplies

“Climate change is already affecting water access for people around the world, causing more severe droughts and floods. Increasing global temperatures are one of the main contributors to this problem. Climate change impacts the water cycle by influencing when, where, and how much precipitation falls. It also leads to more severe weather events over time. Increasing global temperatures cause water to evaporate in larger amounts, which will lead to higher levels of atmospheric water vapor and more frequent, heavy, and intense rains in the coming years.” (Source: National Geographic)

 Blog post © 2023 mae sander. Photos as credited.

Shared with Elizabeth’s weekly blog party.