World Water Day 2017 - focusing on wastewater

NEW YORK, US: World Water Day is observed every year on 22 March. With the increasing water scarcity, worldwide, there is a need for such a day to create awareness among people for increased integration and cooperation to ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources, both at international and local levels.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. The theme of World Water Day 2017 is Why Wastewater?

Today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources, and coping with the health impacts of using water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio.

Focus on wastewater and ways to reduce and reuse as over 80 percent of all the wastewater from our homes, cities, industry and agriculture flows back to nature polluting the environment and losing valuable nutrients and other recoverable materials.

We need to improve the collection and treatment of wastewater and safely reuse it. At the same time, we need to reduce the quantity and pollution load of wastewater we produce, to help protect the environment and our water resources.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 – ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 - includes a target to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater and increase water recycling and safe reuse.

Facts:

• Safely managed wastewater is an affordable and sustainable source of water, energy, nutrients and other recoverable materials. 

• In our homes, we can reuse greywater on our gardens and plots. In our cities, we can treat and reuse wastewater for green spaces. In industry and agriculture, we can treat and recycle discharge for things like cooling systems and irrigation.

• By exploiting this valuable resource, we will make the water cycle work better for every living thing.

• And we will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 target to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater and increase water recycling and safe reuse.

© United Nations News

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