The theme of this year’s World Water Day – marked annually on 22 March – is "Nature for Water", which, as the website of the United Nations Environment Programme informs us, "explores nature-based solutions (NBS) to the water challenges we face in the 21st century."
The challenges are clearly dire; as the UN notes, 2.1 billion people currently "lack access to safely managed drinking water services," while an estimated 1.8 billion "use an unimproved source of drinking water with no protection against contamination from human faeces."
But while the whole "NBS" campaign will no doubt generate handsome revenues for a UN system that specialises in self-enrichment, no solution to water or related challenges is possible within a global capitalist system that is itself destroying nature.
Oceans of pollution Let’s start with the 2.1 billion people reportedly lacking access to "safely managed drinking water services".
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25:00 Even before this revelation, a report by the World Economic Forum had indicated that, if we continue with business as usual, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.
Larger contexts In her 2013 book A Human Rights Manifesto, Julie Wark discusses the monetisation (read: neoliberal theft) of resources and rights, highlighting the role of the bottled beverage industry in environmental destruction -none of this damage will be reversed by planting trees or restoring wetlands.
But the only nature-based solution to capitalism is to get rid of it.

Water and sanitation is a basic human right for all.
Yet, water scarcity affects more than 40 per cent of the global population (UN Report on Clean Water and Sanitation).
Unfortunately, in countries like South Sudan, although completely preventable, water and sanitation-related diseases are among the top killers of children under five.
Six-year old, Mary, reaches for the water pump handle well above her head to fill her large jerry can with water.
In one effortless motion, she hoists the jerry can onto her head balancing it on her head without her hands.
With the help of the South Sudan Red Cross, Mary and more than 500 community members in her village in Yambio now have access to clean, drinking water.
“The stream was making us sick,” says Victoria Richard, another villager living close by.
“In rainy season, the water would get even more dirty and when it was dry, there would be no water at all.” “Now that we have this borehole, we’re closer to clean water.” The responsibility of fetching water is traditionally the role of women and children in rural South Sudan who often have to venture far distances by foot at least three times a day.
“Red Cross is here through the power of our volunteer network to help bring water closer to the communities to ensure that women and their families are healthier and safe.” With the support of the Government of Japan, the South Sudan Red Cross is targeting 3.1 million people, including 560,000 children under five, to help prevent common illnesses in rural communities, including malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea.
Photos and content written by: Corrie Butler

The theme of this year’s World Water Day – marked annually on 22 March – is "Nature for Water", which, as the website of the United Nations Environment Programme informs us, "explores nature-based solutions (NBS) to the water challenges we face in the 21st century."
The challenges are clearly dire; as the UN notes, 2.1 billion people currently "lack access to safely managed drinking water services," while an estimated 1.8 billion "use an unimproved source of drinking water with no protection against contamination from human faeces."
But while the whole "NBS" campaign will no doubt generate handsome revenues for a UN system that specialises in self-enrichment, no solution to water or related challenges is possible within a global capitalist system that is itself destroying nature.
Oceans of pollution Let’s start with the 2.1 billion people reportedly lacking access to "safely managed drinking water services".
Play Video Play Mute 0:00 / 0:00 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Stream TypeLIVE 0:00 Playback Rate 1x Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off, selected Subtitles undefined settings, opens undefined settings dialog captions and subtitles off, selected Audio Track Fullscreen This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window.
TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque Font Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps Reset restore all settings to the default valuesDone Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window.
25:00 Even before this revelation, a report by the World Economic Forum had indicated that, if we continue with business as usual, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.
Larger contexts In her 2013 book A Human Rights Manifesto, Julie Wark discusses the monetisation (read: neoliberal theft) of resources and rights, highlighting the role of the bottled beverage industry in environmental destruction -none of this damage will be reversed by planting trees or restoring wetlands.
But the only nature-based solution to capitalism is to get rid of it.

Water is something that’s essential to human life but also largely taken for granted.
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of World Water Day, held every year by the United Nations and recognized by millions around the globe.
But just what is World Water Day?
Here’s all you need to know about what it is, what the World Water Day 2018 theme is and common World Water Day activities.
What is World Water Day?
World Water Day is a worldwide event held annually to recognize the importance of clean, fresh water in people’s lives and to advocate for sustainable water resource laws and practices throughout the world.
The event was first established by the United Nations on March 22, 1993 and has been held every year since.
The World Water Development Report is also released by the UN every year around World Water Day.
When is World Water Day 2018?
World Water Day activities Anyone can pitch in to not only recognize World Water Day but take active steps to participate in the event.

Almost half of the world’s population — some 3.6 billion people — currently live in areas vulnerable to water scarcity.
Water quality issues and increased demand for water due to a growing global population will combine to put the world’s freshwater resources at risk, explains the World Water Development Report, released Monday.
The report warns of risks of increased conflicts and threats to human civilization unless action is taken to reduce stress on lands and wetlands.
This ecosystem degradation is the main cause behind increased “water-related risks and extremes,” the report explains.
Therefore, over the coming decades, the biggest expected growth in water demand will come from industry and domestic use.
The greatest exposure to these impacts will come in low- and lower-middle income countries because of greater expected population and economic growth in these areas.
About 30 percent of the world’s population is expected to live in areas at risk of routine flooding and drought.
By 2050, between 4.8 and 5.7 billion people will live in regions that will be water-scarce for at least one month each year.
For agriculture, the report also recommends using practices that will help improve efficiency as well as soil quality.
And, as the report highlights, “given the transboundary nature of most river basis, regional cooperation will be critical to addressing projected water quality challenges.” Pointing to these growing trends of water pollution and environmental degradation combined with increased water demand, Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco, which commissioned the report, said: “These trends pose broader challenges from the increased risk of floods and droughts, which in turn has an impact on our ability to adapt to climate change.

More than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050 due to climate change, increased demand and polluted supplies, according to a UN report on the state of the world’s water.
“For too long, the world has turned first to human-built, or ‘grey’, infrastructure to improve water management.
Global demand has increased sixfold over the past 100 years and continues to grow at the rate of 1% each year.
Demand for water is projected to rise fastest in developing countries.
This was apparent in the São Paulo drought of 2014-15, which the city’s water authorities and scientists have linked to Amazon deforestation.
The key for change will be agriculture, the biggest source of water consumption and pollution.
This would also be crucial to reverse erosion and degradation, which currently affects a third of the planet’s land, a different UN study found last year.
The authors stress the goal is not to replace all grey infrastructure, because there are situations where there is no other choice, for example in building reservoirs to supply cities with water.
But they urge greater take-up of green solutions, which are often more cost-effective as well as sustainable.
They are staging an alternative forum in Brasília that puts greater emphasis on community management of water as a free public resource.

The Federal Government in collaboration with The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have stressed the importance of water and sanitation in safeguarding the health of the children.
In his presentation, the UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Abuja, Zaid Jurji, said investment in water and sanitation is necessary in order for Nigeria to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
At the community level, there is a need for them to work at sustainability,” he said.
According to him, only less than 10 per cent of water in Nigeria is suitable for drinking.
Open defecation can also make water unsuitable for drinking despite how much effort we put in to make it suitable”.
Jurji mentioned that 25 per cent of the population in Nigeria practise open defecation, according to the MICS report.
According to him, “It is a fact that UNICEF and EU has been in the forefront of ensuring that we have access to safe drinking water supply, adequate sanitation and proper hygiene in our environment and communities.” Speaking further, Osanyinpeju said WASH remained very important in the life of a Child and significant to achieving Sustaining Development Goal 6.
Open defecation is incredibly dangerous, as contact with human waste can cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, diarrhoea, worm infestation and undernutrition.” Osanyinpeju said there was a need to improve on water and sanitation in order to end Open Defecation by 2030.
According to him; “Washing hands with soap after going to the toilet or before eating can have a significant impact on children’s health.
Good hygiene practices reduce the incidence of diseases such as pneumonia, trachoma, scabies, skin and eye infections and diarrhoea-related diseases like cholera and dysentery.” “Research has also shown that regular hand washing with soap can reduce the incidents of diarrhoea, a disease which can be deadly to children.” In the same vein, The Plateau state Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Engineer David Wuyep who declared the Media Dialogue open, commended UNICEF for its intervention in the provision of water in the state and assured that the state government will always ensure prompt payment of counterpart funds.

About 32 per cent of the population is drinking contaminated water from unimproved water sources.
The majority of these water sources are mainly surface water while some are groundwater sources (open wells and contaminated groundwater aquifers).
Sudan suffers a clear shortage of pure water in its rural districts.
Sudan’s sanitation sector is also facing some serious challenges.
Due to these challenges strategic objectives; raising the number of persons with access to clean and safe drinking water to 82 percent and access to hygiene services to 67 percent by the end of 2016 could not be achieved.
About 50 per cent of the country’s primary schools, in rural areas in particular, neither have sources of clean drinking water nor sewage systems.
Scarcity of water has adverse effects on education in rural areas, because children have to spend a lot of time to bring water to their homes.
Diarrhea in North Sudan is a major problem for the children.
The Sudanese Government and the United Nations had announced the allocation of $1 billion for water funding.
In 2015 the Government of Sudan (GoS) has received financing from the African Development Fund (AfDB) toward the cost of the Water Sector Reforms & Institutional Capacity Development Program.

United Nations, Feb 21 (PTI) Citing a project in India where farmers are using solar-powered pumps to access groundwater for irrigation, UN General Assembly president Miroslav Lajcak has said that the world needs science for tackling global water scarcity.
Noting that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for making sure that there is water and sanitation for all, Lajcak yesterday said water is critical for achieving all Sustainable Development Goals but world leaders are not doing enough.
Science now helps us to calculate how population growth and climate change will affect the availability of water; It helps us track the shifting of rivers in order to help predict floods; In India there is a project where farmers use solar-powered pumps to access groundwater for crop irrigation,�??
from Cape Town to Flint, Michigan."
Noting that 2030 Agenda calls for making sure that there is water and sanitation for all, he said water is critical for achieving all Sustainable Development Goals.
"Yet we are not doing enough, collectively, to achieve SDG 6 on water,�??
Four out of 10 people worldwide are affected by water scarcity.
"And focusing on people means understanding their plight.
We have to bridge the gap between science and policy �??
and the gap between policy and people.

United Nations, Feb 21 (PTI) Citing a project in India where farmers are using solar-powered pumps to access groundwater for irrigation, UN General Assembly president Miroslav Lajcak has said that the world needs science for tackling global water scarcity.
Noting that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for making sure that there is water and sanitation for all, Lajcak yesterday said water is critical for achieving all Sustainable Development Goals but world leaders are not doing enough.
Science now helps us to calculate how population growth and climate change will affect the availability of water; It helps us track the shifting of rivers in order to help predict floods; In India there is a project where farmers use solar-powered pumps to access groundwater for crop irrigation,�??
from Cape Town to Flint, Michigan."
Noting that 2030 Agenda calls for making sure that there is water and sanitation for all, he said water is critical for achieving all Sustainable Development Goals.
"Yet we are not doing enough, collectively, to achieve SDG 6 on water,�??
Four out of 10 people worldwide are affected by water scarcity.
"And focusing on people means understanding their plight.
We have to bridge the gap between science and policy �??
and the gap between policy and people.