Each year, the UN focuses on a different aspect of water for World Water Day, which is observed annually on March 22. For 2015 the theme is 'Water and Sustainable Development'. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared today that it is most urgent that international communities unite for one of the “most urgent issues” affecting populations accross world today. “To address the many challenges related to water, we must work in a spirit of urgent cooperation, open to new ideas and innovation, and prepared to share the solutions that we all need for a sustainable future,” Mr. Ban said. “If we do so, we can end poverty, promote global prosperity and well-being, protect the environment and withstand the threat of climate change.”
Mr. Ban insisted that some of the most affected include women and children, compromising their overall health and exposing them inhumane conditions of labor during “unproductive and sometimes dangerous business of collecting water.” But Ban also reinstated that, “To address the many challenges related to water, we must work in a spirit of urgent cooperation, open to new ideas and innovation, and prepared to share the solutions that we all need for a sustainable future,” He continued. “If we do so, we can end poverty, promote global prosperity and well-being, protect the environment and withstand the threat of climate change.”
The memo released by the UN also included a statement from the head of the UN Children Fund's (UNICEF) global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene programs, Sanjay Wijesekera, who said in a press release that, “Water is the very essence of life and yet three-quarters of a billion people – mostly the poor and the marginalized – still today are deprived of this most basic human right.”
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