Tag Archive for 'WHO'

U.N. says 2 billion more get safe water to drink

Published on 03/06/2012 in management, peak water, water rights and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: World resources forum

“More than 2 billion people have gained access to better drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells, between 1990 and 2010, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.

“The figure means the world has met the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve the proportion of people with no safe drinking water well ahead of a 2015 deadline, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

“United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this was “a great achievement for the people of the world” and noted it was one of the first MDGs to be met.

“The Millennium Development Goals are a group of targets set by the international community in 2000 to seek to improve health and reduce poverty among the world’s poorest people by 2015.

“Better water, sanitation and hygiene are key to improving human health and development,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. “Today, even with this exciting new progress, almost 10 percent of all diseases are still linked to poor water, sanitation and hygiene.”

“The report said there were still huge challenges in certain parts of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, where only 61 percent of people have access to improved water supplies compared with 90 percent or more in Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Africa and large parts of Asia.

“It also said some 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open because they have no toilets, and the vast majority of them live in rural areas.”

Read more: Reuters

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UN reports improved access to safe drinking water, but poorest countries still lagging

Published on 12/21/2011 in contaminated water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

“The internationally stated goal of improving access to safe drinking water across the globe is likely to be achieved well ahead of the 2015 deadline, but large numbers of people in the world’s least developed regions will still not benefit, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.Reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by half  is one of the global targets under the internationally-agreed poverty and social development vision known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have a 2015 achievement deadline.
“The new study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN World Health Organization (WHO),entitled Drinking Water Equity, Safety and Sustainability, shows that between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of the world’s population with access to improved drinking water sources increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent.
“Globally, more than eight in 10 people without improved drinking water  sources live in rural areas. “The good news is that almost 1.8 billion more people now have access to drinking water compared to the start of the 1990s,”said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s associate director and water and sanitation chief. “The bad news is that the poorest and most marginalized are being left behind.” However, the report stresses, even though significant progress has been made, at the current rate, 672 million people will still not be using improved drinking water sources in 2015. There are still many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia and South-East Asia that are not on track to meet the target, according to the report.”
Read more: ftpapp

 

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Rights Group says Gaza’s Drinking Water Polluted

Published on 05/30/2011 in contaminated water, groundwater, hydrology, policy, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

 

Retrieved from: map-UK

“A Gaza rights group said Monday in a fact sheet that quality of drinking water in the Gaza Strip is way below international standards.

“Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said that 95% of the drinking water is below World Health Organization (WHO) standards, stressing that the Israeli practices contributed to decreasing the availability of drinking water and increased level of contamination of Gaza underground water reserves.

“The fact sheet focused on the Gaza Strip’s desalination stations, especially the quality of the produced water and monitoring policy.

“It explained that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory in 1967 is the main reason for the water shortage and contamination.

“It reported that the Israeli authorities dug more than 26 wells along the armistice demarcation line between Israel and Gaza in an attempt to prevent the flow of ground water.

“It said that Israeli forces deliberately destroyed the infrastructure of the water sector in Gaza, targeting wells, reservoirs, ponds , the main supply lines and irrigation systems.

“The sheet addressed the pollution of the underground reservoirs, adding that this source is being depleted, which leads to the deterioration of water quality.

“As for the quality of the drinking water, the fact sheet said that the level of chloride in the water wells exceeds by eight times the WHO criteria. The nitrate concentration increased in most wells also to eight times WHO’s criteria

Read more: wafa

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