-UNGA President says Billions of people without clean water, decent toilets
Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: Pakistan has joined 161 countries that have co-signed a joint statement underscoring the importance of water amid the coronavirus pandemic in which cleanliness and hygiene are the first defence lines in the absence of a vaccine, particularly in many developing countries.
The cross-regional statement was issued as a high-level meeting deliberated on the “Implementation of the Water-related Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda” on Thursday. The statement called water a matter of life and source of existence for all living, saying the human rights to water and sanitation must be promoted, protected and fulfilled at all times. It said that water is a matter of life, as it is an important source of existence for all.
“Pakistan is proud to be part of drafters of the joint statement co-signed by 161countries,” Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, said in a tweet. “This reaffirms that through collective resolve and cross-border cooperation we can achieve universal & equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all,” Ambassador Akram, who is also the President of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said.
“I call for scaling up investments in water-related infrastructures, in accordance with international law, to achieve water security by 2030.”
Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly President, Volkan Bozkir, said that the lack of providing everyone access to safe drinking water was a global “moral failure”, as he opened a high-level meeting on water-related issues and targets on Thursday.
“If I may be candid: it is a moral failure that we live in a world with such high levels of technical innovation and success, but we continue to allow billions of people to exist without clean drinking water or the basic tools to wash their hands,” he said.
The meeting centred on implementation of the water-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, the blueprint for a better, more sustainable world. It promises to leave no one behind, with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 specifically addressing access to water and sanitation.
Additionally, the UN General Assembly has declared 2018 to 2028, the Water Action Decade, which also addresses the increased global pressure on water resources, and exacerbated risk of droughts and floods. Bozkir, a top Turkish diplomat, said the fact that during the pandemic, billions have not had basic handwashing facilities, while health workers in some of the Least Developed Countries do not have running water, represents a “stark example of global inequality” that requires action. “While we cannot go back and change what has happened, we must acknowledge our failings and use this opportunity to root out the systemic gaps that have allowed the crisis to flourish”, he said.
“When the next global pandemic or crisis strikes, and we know that it will, we will have no excuse for having not acted now.”
The UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, underscored just how far off the world is from achieving SDG 6.
She told the meeting the current rate of progress would have to quadruple to meet the 2030 deadline. “Moreover, the planetary crisis, including the interlinked threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, will increase water scarcity”, she added.
