[Environment Report]:International Year of Fresh Water


This is the VOA Special English Environment Report.

Everywhere, water use is increasing. Humans already usefifty-four percent of all the fresh water in rivers, lakes andunderground. There are some estimates that this rate will reachseventy percent by two-thousand-twenty-five.

Fresh water is necessary for life on Earth. People need water foreveryday activities and to produce food. Water also is important forenergy production and the health of Earth's environmental systems.

The United Nations is organizing a series of events to increaseconcern about water issues. U-N officials have declaredtwo-thousand-three the International Year of Fresh Water. A goal ofthe campaign is to build support for policies to use water morewisely. Another goal is to get more people to use water in ways thatwill not hurt the environment.

The world population is more than six-thousand-million people.More than one-thousand-million lack safe drinking water. More thantwo-thousand-million suffer from diseases linked to dirty water.And, more than two-thousand-million live without waste-treatmentsystems.

Water was one of the issues discussed at the U-N MillenniumSummit two years ago. Leaders said they would work to cut the numberof people without safe drinking water in half bytwo-thousand-fifteen. Officials renewed that goal last year at theSummit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa.They also promised to cut in half the number of people without safesystems to treat waste by two-thousand-fifteen.

Nitin Desai directs the U-N Office for Economic and SocialAffairs. He says success in these goals will require major changesin the ways people use water. He says water reforms have to belinked to changes in policies for land use, human settlement,agriculture, industry and energy.

Next month, the World Water Forum will meet in Kyoto, Japan.Officials plan to release the first U-N report on world waterdevelopment. This report will examine the world's water problems.And it will offer suggestions on ways to meet future water demands.Experts say international reaction to the U-N report will be animportant test of the political desire to solve the water crisis.

There is a U-N Web site on water issues: w-w-w dotwateryear-two-thousand-three-dot o-r-g (www.wateryear2003.org).

This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by GeorgeGrow.

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