World Water Day has been held annually on 22 March since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March as the International World Water Day.
According to a report issued earlier this month by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), between 1990 and 2010, over 2 billion people gained access to improved drinking water. This marks the achievement of one of UN’s Millennium Development Goals – to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
“For children this is especially good news,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Every day more than 3 000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases. Achieving this goal will go a long way to saving children’s lives.”
However, much remains to be done, as 783 million people are still without access to safe drinking water, and billions without sanitation facilities. The report says that people living in rural areas are several times more likely than their urban counterparts to be without access to safe drinking water. Overwhelmingly, it is women and girls who are bearing the burden of water collection, the report states.
“Safe drinking water must reach everyone”, says Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s chief of water, sanitation and hygiene. “We cannot celebrate progress until those who are hardest to reach can also turn on a tap, or go to a well or pump and get enough safe drinking water for their daily needs.”
Wings for the Innocents 