News
UN General Assembly focuses on Water Shortage
The UN General Assembly starts Monday an interactive debate on yet another problem: the growing shortage of water and its negative effect on health, food security and sustainable development
Source
Prensa Latina
Date
The UN General Assembly starts Monday an interactive debate on yet another problem: the growing shortage of water and its negative effect on health, food security and sustainable development
The UN main organization will carry out a top level interactive debate to boost action for the so-called Decade of Water (2005-2015) and its relation with the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) during the next five years.
The two-day exchange will have three panels that will debate on water and its relation with climate change, disasters, peace and security.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson, Ecuadorian Government Minister Jorge Jurado and former minister of water, resources and irrigation from Egypt Mahmoud Abu-Zeid will make the presentations.
UN date show that nearly 885 million people are nowaday suffering from water shortage and over 2,600 million (39 pct of the world population) do not have adequate services from the point of view of health-care.
In a declaration aimed at the interactive talks that will start Monday the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon emphasized that through water the climate change has a great influence on the ecosystem of the earth, ways of life and welfare for human beings.
In that sense, he warned that this interrelation is evidenced in droughts, more frequent and severe floods.
The increase of temperature and extreme changes affect the availability and distribution of rain, snow fusion, the course of rivers and underground water and deteriorate water quality even more, emphasized the leader.
In the face of this, Ban Ki-Moon called for tackling climate change, introducing innovative technological practices and applying strategies for reducing polluting gas emission to the outerspace.
The UN chief considered that these issues and recognition of the main function of water have not yet grasped the full attention of politicians nor they are envisioned in national and international invesment plans.
The debates of the interactive talks should influence an international conference on water that will be held on June in Tajikistan and on the MDGs summit scheduled for September at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The UN main organization will carry out a top level interactive debate to boost action for the so-called Decade of Water (2005-2015) and its relation with the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) during the next five years.
The two-day exchange will have three panels that will debate on water and its relation with climate change, disasters, peace and security.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson, Ecuadorian Government Minister Jorge Jurado and former minister of water, resources and irrigation from Egypt Mahmoud Abu-Zeid will make the presentations.
UN date show that nearly 885 million people are nowaday suffering from water shortage and over 2,600 million (39 pct of the world population) do not have adequate services from the point of view of health-care.
In a declaration aimed at the interactive talks that will start Monday the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon emphasized that through water the climate change has a great influence on the ecosystem of the earth, ways of life and welfare for human beings.
In that sense, he warned that this interrelation is evidenced in droughts, more frequent and severe floods.
The increase of temperature and extreme changes affect the availability and distribution of rain, snow fusion, the course of rivers and underground water and deteriorate water quality even more, emphasized the leader.
In the face of this, Ban Ki-Moon called for tackling climate change, introducing innovative technological practices and applying strategies for reducing polluting gas emission to the outerspace.
The UN chief considered that these issues and recognition of the main function of water have not yet grasped the full attention of politicians nor they are envisioned in national and international invesment plans.
The debates of the interactive talks should influence an international conference on water that will be held on June in Tajikistan and on the MDGs summit scheduled for September at the UN Headquarters in New York.