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A
quarter of the world's population relies on unsafe drinking
water while half lacks basic sanitation, the U.N. said.
Meanwhile, nearly three quarters of recent disasters have been
related to water.
"We are draining humanity's lifeblood through vampiric
overconsumption and unsustainable use, and evaporating it
through global heating," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio
Guterres.
Ensuring access to clean drinking water and sanitation is part
of the 17-point to-do list the U.N. has set for sustainable
development, alongside ending hunger and poverty, achieving
gender equality, and taking action on climate change.
The three-day conference beginning on Wednesday in New York is
not intended to produce the kind of binding accord that emerged
from climate meetings in Paris in 2015, or a framework like the
one set for nature protection in Montreal in 2022.
Instead, the aim is for a "Water Action Agenda" that will
contain voluntary commitments and create "political momentum".
The United States said it would invest $49 billion in water and
sanitation at home and around the world.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said this
money would "help create jobs, prevent conflicts, safeguard
public health, reduce the risk of famine and hunger, and enable
us to respond to climate change and natural disasters". She gave
no timeline for the investments or details on how much money
would be spent where.
Hundreds of action plans were sent to the U.N. before the
conference started, but the World Resources Institute research
group said that while "some commitments offer inspiration, more
of them miss the mark", variously lacking funding or performance
targets, or neglecting to address climate change.
WRI singled out two projects for praise: one to spend $21.2
million through 2029 on "climate-smart" agriculture and wetland
restoration in the desertifying Niger River basin, and another
from 1,729 companies that calculate they can make water-related
investments worth $436 billion.
Scientists, economists and policy experts grouped together by
the government of the Netherlands in the Global Commission on
the Economics of Water recommended phasing out some $700 billion
in agricultural and water subsidies, and facilitating
partnerships between development finance institutions and
private investors to improve water systems.
(Reporting by Isla BinnieEditing by Mark Potter, Bill Berkrot
and Diane Craft)
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