Need to build flexible systems to provide solutions for sustainable use of water: India at UN

India has underscored the need to build flexible systems providing long-term solutions for sustainable use of water, amidst increasing global pressure on water resources.

President of the General Assembly Volkan Bojkir, Minister of Water Power (Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said while addressing a high-level meeting on the “implementation of water-related goals and targets” of the 2030 Agenda, there is no doubt that In the journey to achieve the 2030 Agenda, water supply and sanitation will have to become the focus of global efforts.

“Water, which is important for life on Earth, also plays an important role in social, economic and environmental assessment of the world for a sustainable future. Shekhawat said on Thursday that about 1.1 billion people are short of water, with 2.7 billion people facing water scarcity for at least a month every year.

“We need to provide water for the most vulnerable. Also, we need to create a flexible system providing long term solutions for sustainable use of water.

Noting that the water system is straining and more than half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared, Shekhawat said climate change is changing weather patterns, causing droughts in some areas and flooding in others. is.

“Furthermore, the extent of water availability and distribution is changed by geography, increasing demand for water bodies, and pollution. There have been synergistic results with water conservation, rainwater harvesting and water recycling and we need to build on them.

The implementation of the water-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda focuses on high-level meeting, which is the blueprint for a better, more sustainable world.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 specifically addresses access to water and sanitation. The United Nations General Assembly has declared a decade of water action, from 2018 to 2028, that increases global pressures on water resources, and increases the risk of drought and flooding.

Bojkir told the high-level meeting that about 2.2 billion people – nearly a third of the global population – continue to lack access to safely managed drinking water; 4.2 billion people – more than half of the planet’s population – live without safely managed sanitation and two billion people do not have a decent toilet of their own.

“If I can be clear: It is a moral failure that we live in such a world with high levels of technological innovation and success, but we billions of people need to exist without clean drinking water or basic tools to wash our hands Allow. And make no mistake, this is a global failure that has far-reaching effects for all of us.

He called on the international community to provide greater financial and capacity-building support to activities related to water and sanitation, particularly through their support for COVID-19 recovery.

Shekhawat said that 17.7 percent of the world’s population calls India as their home, by 2030 the availability of water will be doubled. He outlined the efforts made by India to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal-6, specifically the establishment of the Ministry of Water Conservation and Management in 2019 to address all issues related to water.

The “Swachh Bharat Mission”, he said, was launched in 2014, which resulted in open defecation-free India worldwide, resulting in the world’s largest sanitation campaign with the construction of 110 million toilets in just six years.

The campaign successfully influenced a positive behavior change urging people to adopt better sanitation and hygiene standards, adding that experience shows that the role of women in managing water and sanitation facilities is important in ensuring sustainability.

India has also started a 50 billion dollar project ‘Water Life Mission’ (Water Life) to provide safe and piped drinking water to all households by 2024. Under the National River Conservation Plan, the Ganges River is being cleaned. Pollution and conservation is being accomplished by rejuvenation of the river. Shekhawat gave Dr. Quoting the words of BR Ambedkar, “The wealth of the people and its distribution is uncertain, the right way is not to complain against nature but to conserve water.”