World Water Day Marked at UN
The international community marked World Water Day on Wednesday, with this year dedicated to “accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.” Global leaders met at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday for a water conference, meant to “zero in on the global water crisis and the need to protect this precious resource as a basic human right for the planet’s 8 billion people,” according to a statement from the UN.
Some 2 billion people lack safe drinking water; 3.6 billion people lack safe sanitation; and almost half a million people die from water-related infectious diseases every year, Emomali Rahmon, president of Tajikistan and a co-chairman of the conference, told the attendees of the international conference. He announced that Tajikistan will host a high-level international conference on glacier preservation in 2025.
World Water Day, an annual United Nations observance day, was first marked in 1993 after being proposed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
“We are draining humanity’s lifeblood through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use and evaporating it through global heating,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said. He called for water to serve as a key driver across economies and policymaking as water and climate policies are integrated. “Now is the moment for game-changing commitments to bring the Water Action Agenda to life,” he said.
