A man known as “Canche” poses for a portrait after working in the polluted waters of the Las Vacas River, where informal workers collect scrap metal from Guatemala’s largest landfill, ahead of World Water Day in Guatemala City, Guatemala March 21, 2023. Picture: Josue Decavele/Reuters
As world leaders converge on New York this World Water Day for the start of the UN 2023 Water Conference convened by the UN General Assembly, 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.
The theme for this year’s World Water Day is “accelerating change”.
Through the Water Action Agenda, the World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed that it is committing to “accelerating professionalised water supply and sanitation services through capacity building in regulation for dramatic improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene in health care facilities”.
The vision for the conference, as mentioned by WHO, is to “fundamentally understand, value and manage water, sanitation and hygiene better” and take actions to achieve the internationally agreed water, sanitation and health-related goals and targets, ie SDG6.
In 2015, the world committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG6) 6 as part of the 2030 Agenda which promises that every person on Earth will have access to clean water by 2030, just under 7 years from now.
But, we are miles off-track to reaching this target as billions of people around the world, 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.
The conference will see world leaders, negotiators and activists pushing for clear commitments, pledges and actions, across all our sectors, industries and interests, uniting nations, stakeholders and professionals on actions that help deliver on the water actions in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Actions which can be scaled and replicated in the years to come. These commitments will be compiled in the Water Action Agenda, another key outcome of the Conference.
The emphasis should be on accelerated implementation and improved impact towards achieving SDG 6 and other water-related goals and targets, looking at the content, process and structure.
According to WorldWaterDay.org, existing and future challenges in the field of water require innovative and transformative ideas and a “beyond business as usual” approach as governments have to work on average four times faster to meet SDG 6 by 2030.
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