World Water Day 2019 - Leaving no one behind

This year’s theme for World Water Day is ‘Leaving no one behind’, adapted from the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit.
Just like the plastic in the ocean 🌊 can seem like a far away concern…until you find micro beeds in your 🐠 dinner when water was first mentioned to me 15 years ago as a potential cause of crisis that could lead to war it wasn’t easy to relate to at first.
However one doesn’t have to think far to understand that it could take something as basic as cutting of your neighboring countries supply or polluting it to cause serious conflict.

This is just one of the reasons why the UN in 2010 recognized the access to clean water and sanitation as a human right.

The conversation and sense of urgency about water needs to reach every part of the planet, and travel beyond the places that are affected the most. Visiting South Africa more than 10 years ago, for example, water restrictions where a topic of every day conversation.

And when we talk today about the billions of people who are still living without safe water and their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive let’s not forget the marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – who are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need.

For more information about Worldwaterday visit https://www.worldwaterday.org/