»

::

::

::

::

::

Treaties & Protocol

::

::

::

::

»

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FRESHWATER 2003

Jump in! Get your feet wet! Make a splash! Together we can make a difference

No matter who we are, where we are, and what we do, we are all dependent on water. We need it every day, in so many ways. We need it to stay healthy, we need it for growing food, for transportation, irrigation and industry. We need it for animals and plants, for changing colours and seasons. However, despite the importance of water resources in our lives and well-being, we are increasingly disrespectful of them. We abuse them. We waste them. We pollute them, forgetting how essential they are to our very survival.

Freshwater is the single most precious element for life on earth. It is essential for satisfying basic human needs, health, food production, energy and maintenance of regional and global ecosystems.  Although 70 per cent of the world’s surface is covered by water, only a fraction of that  — 2.5 per cent — is freshwater, of which 70 per cent is frozen in ice caps.  The remainder is present as soil moisture. This leaves less than one per cent of the world’s freshwater resources accessible for human use.

In recognition of the central importance of water resources to the planet’s future, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater.

• 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water, roughly one-sixth of the world’s population, and 2.4 billion or 40 per cent of the world’s people lack access to adequate sanitation services.

• Some 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene – equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.

• Unsafe water and sanitation cause an estimated 80 per cent of all diseases in the developing world.

• Women and girls tend to suffer the most as a result of the lack of sanitation facilities.

• One flush of a Western toilet uses as much water as the average person in the developing world uses for a whole day’s washing, drinking, cleaning and cooking.

•  Water use has grown at twice the rate of population during the past century. The Middle East, North Africa and South Asia are chronically short of water. 

• In developing countries, as much as 90 per cent of waste water is discharged without treatment.

• Overpumping groundwater for drinking water and irrigation has caused water levels to decline by tens of metres in many regions, forcing people to use low-quality water for drinking.

• Losses of water through leakage, illegal hook-ups and waste amount to about 50 per cent of water for drinking and 60 per cent of water for irrigation in developing countries.

• Floods affected more than 75 per cent of all people impacted by natural disasters during the 1990s and caused over 33 per cent of the total estimated costs of natural disasters.

The total volume of water on Earth is about 1 400 million km3 of which only 2.5 per cent, or about 35 million km3, is freshwater (see table below). Most freshwater occurs in the form of permanent ice or snow, locked up in Antarctica and Greenland, or in deep groundwater aquifers. The principal sources of water for human use are lakes, rivers, soil moisture and relatively shallow groundwater basins. The usable portion of these sources is only about 200 000 km3 of water — less than 1 per cent of all freshwater and only 0.01 per cent of all water on Earth. Much of this available water is located far from human populations, further complicating issues of water use.

The replenishment of freshwater depends on evaporation from the surface of the oceans. About 505 000 km3, or a layer 1.4 metres thick, evaporates from the oceans annually. Another 72 000 km3 evaporates from the land. About 80 per cent of all precipitation, or about 458 000 km3/year, falls on the oceans and the remaining 119 000 km3/year on land. The difference between precipitation on land surfaces and evaporation from those surfaces (119 000 km3 minus 72 000 km3 annually) is run-off and groundwater recharge — approximately 47 000 km3 annually (Gleick 1993). The figure opposite shows one estimate of the average annual water balance of major continental areas, including precipitation, evaporation and run-off. More than one-half of all run-off occurs in Asia and South America, and a large fraction occurs in a single river, the Amazon, which carries more than 6 000 km3 of water a year (Shiklomanov 1999).