News from the waterfront / Richard Helmer

4 World Health • July-August 1992 News from the waterfront Richard Helmer N ot a week goes by without news from the waterfront. We read in the press and see television pictures of catastrophic floods in Bangladesh, devastating droughts in the Sahel, barren lands in Zimbabwe and avalanches in Anatolia. We have also witnessed the emergence of water pollution damage beyond hope of repair in some eastern European cities and the unstoppable encroachment of cholera over the South American continent. Not a week goes by without news from the waterfront. Water is essential to life on earth. Plant and animal life are vitally dependent on water, which is an essential ingredient and a lubricant of nature. Human existence is affected if there is too little or too much water and, if it becomes polluted, it becomes a health threat and a hindrance to economic prosperity. There is hardly any current issue that more conclu- sively demonstrates the integrated nature of environment and develop- ment than that of fresh water. The challenge of securing for all people the basic human need of a reliable supply of fresh water, adequate in quantity and in quality, is perhaps the most fundamental development issue. International responsibility The role of ~ater for health was fully recognized by the recent WHO Commission on Health and Environ- ment, which highlighted the heavy burden of water-related diseases on humankind. This Commission was convened to assess the health conse- quences of environmental change and socio-economic development, and its report featured as WHO's main contribution to the UN Conference on Environment and Development, held Sustainable development requires us to be aware of ecological rules and to assume full responsibility for our common future. The Commission emphasized the crucial importance of having healthy people to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable development. Earlier this year, the International Conference on Water and the Envi- ronment, held in Dublin in January, brought together 500 government- designated water experts from 100 countries and 80 international organi- zations. These experts warned that This stomp from Zaire stresses the importance of safe water for development. in June of this year in Rio de Janeiro. Most human activities ore dependent on water. World Health • July-August 1992 human health and welfare, food security, industrial development and the ecosystems on which they depend are all at risk unless our rivers and lakes are treated more responsibly and effectively, with land and water resources management going hand in hand. The problems are here with us today and affect humanity now. High standards of living are associated with high water consump- tion, and it is not uncommon for water to be used at rates of 400 litres per person per day. The relative abun- dance and reliability of water supply in the industrialized countries is, to a large extent, the factor that has allowed economic growth to take place. But is it really necessary to use 5000 litres of fresh water to produce an eight-ounce boneless steak in California? During the last two decades the industrialized world has started to realize the importance of preserving water resources if develop- ment is to be sustainable in the long run. Day-to-day concerns Today, well into the 1990s, over a quarter of the world's population still cannot meet the basic human needs of enough food to eat, clean water to drink, and sanitation to maintain personal hygiene. In the developing world as a whole, there is an immedi- ate need for improved standards of living and, in particular, for the alleviation of poverty and elimination of water-borne diseases. These day-to- day concerns easily override the more distant concerns about climate change, biodiversity conservation, and other long-term global environmental problems. This dual perspective on environment and economic growth in developed and developing countries played a determining role and prepared the ground for a consensus at the Rio conference . . Economic growth and prosperity in the developing world are to an ever greater extent triggered by the gross Rice paddy in Indonesia. Water used for agriculture con carry diseases. domestic product generated in the cities. Tragically, this is accompanied by informal settlements and human misery in peri-urban slum areas. For example, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the infant mortality rate in urban slums is almost three times that in rural areas; the incidence of tuberculosis in Soweto, South Africa, is more than s I 00 times that among the high-income areas of the same city. Contaminated drinking-water and a lack of sanitation proliferate the spread of faecal pathogens, as the current cholera epidemics in Africa and Latin America vividly demonstrate. Industries, whose demand on water resources accounts globally for only about 10%, are responsible for most of the hazardous substances that pollute surface and underground . water. Proper pollution safeguards, effluent treatment, and recycling of waste water will have to be rigorously applied if sustainable industrial development is to be achieved, and the "polluter pays" principle will have to be enforced. To feed the hungry By the year 2025 the world will probably have over 8000 million people to feed, 60% more than today. Achieving food security is a first priority in most developing countries, and rain-fed crop production could only satisfy a fraction of this demand. Man-made irrigation systems have helped to boost crop production, but more than half the water is generally wasted in the irrigation process. Much environmental damage has been due to waterlogged soils and widespread soil salinity leading to depressed crop yields. A price is also paid in terms of human ill-health with the reintroduc- tion of disease vectors living in the new irrigation canals. Schistosomiasis is found today in 76 countries, where around 200 million persons are infected and another 400 million at risk of infection. Rural drinking-water supplies, however, have successfully expanded in coverage during the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, and have 6 World Health • July-August 1992 reduced the risk of water-borne diarrhoea! diseases. The water experts assembled in Dublin unanimously recognized that concerted action across all profes- sional and political boundaries is needed to reverse the present trends of overconsumption, pollution and rising threats from droughts and floods. This requires fundamental new approaches to the assessment, development and management of freshwater resources, ranging from large international river basin programmes to the smallest village water committees. One such example is the UNEP-initiated Zambesi Action Plan covering an entire African river which provides water to more than 20 million people in eight countries. . resource. Personal commitment is a prerequisite, from the village farmer to the political decision-maker. Develop- ment, to be sustainable on a long-term basis, requires us to be aware of ecological rules and to assume full responsibility for our common In the end, the key to the water problem is people. People determine whether we are able to avoid a "water crisis", resolve political conflicts over equitable access to water, and wisely use and protect this precious natural future. • Or Richard He/mer is a Scientist with the Prevention of Environmental Pollution Unit in WHO's Division of Environmental Health, 1 2 11 Geneva 27, Switzerland From the water tower to the rudimentary tap . . technology should seNe human health. The Dublin Statement on water and sustainable development Scarcity and misuse of freshwater pose a serious and growing threat to sustainable development and protection of the environment. Human health and welfare, food security, industrial development and the ecosystems on which they depend, are all at risk, unless water and land resources are managed more effectively in the present decade and beyond than they have been in the past. Fi ve hundred participants , including government-designated experts from a hundred countries and representatives of eighty international, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, attended the International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE) in Dublin, Ireland, on 26-31 January 1 992. The experts saw the emerging global water resources picture as critica l. At its closing session, the Conference adopted this Dublin Statement and the Conference Report. The problems highlighted are not speculative in nature; nor are they likely to affect our planet only in the distant future . They are here and they affect humanity now. The future survival of many millions of people demands immediate and effective action. The Conference participants ca lled for fundamental new approaches to the assessment, development and management of freshwater resources, which can only be brought about through political commitment and involvement from the highest levels of government to the smallest communities. Commitment wil l need to be backed by substantial and immediate investments, public awareness campaigns, legislative and institu tiona l changes, technology development, and capacity building programmes. Underlying all these must be a greater recognition of the interdependence of all peoples, and of their place in the natural world. In commending this Dublin Statement to the world leaders assembled at the United Nations Conference on Envi ronment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the Conference participants urged all governments to study carefully the specific activities and means of implemen tat ion recommended in the . Conference Report , and to translate those recommendations into urgent action programmes for WATER AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.