Freshwater plays a key role not only in maintaining health and welfare but also in providing security. Nonetheless, an estimated 3.6 billion people in the world lack access to safe water supplies at least for 30 days a year.
Alexander Leicht, officer-in-charge of the UNESCO Cluster Office in Tehran, made the statement Monday while addressing a panel on "The 2nd National Water Technology Festival: Unconventional Water (Salt and Waste Water)" at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province, IRNA reported.
"Lack of freshwater has resulted in depletion of underground water tables whose disastrous consequences are unquestionable," he said, adding that of all the water available on Earth, about 2.5% is fresh and a good part inaccessible to the people.
Referring to reports issued by the World Health Organization, he said the availability of such a small fraction of freshwater from rivers, lakes and from underground tables too is increasingly threatened by land use, deforestation, climate change and rising consumption of growing populations and industries.
Additionally, the quality of the water is threatened by increasing pollution, particularly in urban areas and due also to intensified agriculture.
"By protecting freshwater ecosystems we are protecting our health as well as fighting drought," the UN official was quoted as saying.
"Water may be everywhere, but it is not stopping vast swathes of the planet suffering from ever-increasing drought conditions," Leicht warned. He added that water paucity across continents is developing so fast that providing essential goods and basic services, namely sanitation for large segments of the world population, has been adversely affected.
Water-associated infectious diseases claim up to 3.2 million lives each year, approximately 6% of all deaths globally.
Repeated droughts are destroying farms which can produce enough crops to feed 81 million people, said the World Bank in a recent report, aptly named Uncharted Waters.
"The 21st century is witnessing the collision of two prevailing trends – rising human populations coupled with a changing climate," the financial institution argues. It is no small matter, as the collision could be brutal.
It is regrettable that very few practical solutions have been devised to tackle the critical issue so far except for the areas where famine and water scarcity claim millions of lives, Leicht said.
The December 10-11 event in Mashhad has brought together foreign researchers, scholars, as well as scientific elite to share views on scientific and technological activities in the field of unconventional waters as well as creating a business platform for innovative applications and new technologies.
