un – Fragments and Reflections

In 1992, the United Nations designated March 22nd as the World Day for Water in Resolution 193 of the Forty-seventh Session of the General Assembly.

The World Day for Water was first proposed in Agenda 21 for the 1992 Rio Summit, the meeting that hugely raised awareness of the role of local government and local communities in tackling global environmental and climate issues.

Since 1993 the day has been observed consistently, drawing attention to the plight of the estimated one billion people plus who each year have to rely on dangerous sources of water to survive.

Having travelled a little in India and Africa, turning on a tap and being able to drink a handful of clean, cold water is still something for which I am profoundly grateful. Whilst it is easy to take it for granted, when I think about it I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like not to have it.

A year or so ago we had a small taste of what it was like to lose our mains supply for just a few hours. The sense of worry as you wonder when you might be able to wash clothes or make drinks again is out of all proportion to the scale of a relatively small inconvenience. It does, however, cause you to pause and consider how it would be to have to walk miles a day to a potentially polluted stream and draw water you’d be uncomfortable watering the garden with.

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre reports the stark analysis of the World Health Organization:

Each year more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to resort to using potentially harmful sources of water. This perpetuates a silent humanitarian crisis that kills some 3900 children every day and thwarts progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The consequences of our collective failure to tackle this problem are the dimmed prospects for the billions of people locked in a cycle of poverty and disease.

The root of this underlying catastrophe lies in these plain, grim facts: 4 of every 10 people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine and nearly 2 in 10 have no source of safe drinking-water.

Thankfully, the appalling situation is not something that the UN/WHO are prepared to see continue:

To help end this appalling state of affairs, the MDGs include a specific target (number 10) to cut in half, by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation. In addition, the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation recently recognized that integrated development and management of water resources are crucial to the success or failure of all the MDGs, as water is central to the livelihood systems of the poor.

Among the more innovative ideas for drawing water to the surface, one particularly caught my attention, marrying the desperate need for fresh water to a completely different and endless resource: the playful, optimistic energy of children.

Water for People provides a very clear explanation of how these amazing inventions work:

While children have fun spinning on the PlayPump merry-go-round (1), clean water is pumped (2) from underground (3) into a 2,500-liter tank (4), standing seven meters above the ground.
A simple tap (5) makes it easy for adults and children to draw water. Excess water is diverted from the storage tank back down into the borehole (6).
The water storage tank (7) provides a rare opportunity to advertise in outlaying communities. All four sides of the tank are leased as billboards, with two sides for consumer advertising and the other two sides for health and educational messages. The revenue generated by this unique model pays for pump maintenance.
The design of the PlayPump water system makes it highly effective, easy to operate and very economical, keeping costs and maintenance to an absolute minimum.
Capable of producing up to 1,400 litres of water per hour at 16 rpm from a depth of 40 meters, it is effective up to a depth of 100 meters.

Innovations such as this, which show the application of creative, lateral thinking, create a real hope that the challenge of providing clean water can be met. Days such as the World Day for Water play a crucial part in alerting all of us to the need to act sooner – not later.

The video below, again from Water for People, is quite uplifting.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Finally, by way of a footnote, I clearly should have written this yesterday – but being tired after a long day I didn’t. So my apologies for lateness (something I seem to do far too often).

On April 24 2007 Anwar al-Bunni, human rights activist and friend and colleague of my friend, Kamal al-Labwani, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false or exaggerated news that could weaken national morale”. He had been detained since May 2006 in harsh conditions and abused by his guards. On 20 May, Kamal suffered a similar fate: sentenced to twelve years, later extended by a further three.

On 1 May 2008, Anwar al-Bunni was selected to receive an award from the Irish organisation Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. In June 2008 Martin Sheen and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD joined Front Line to celebrate his courage.

Just recently, in December 2009, Anwar’s courage and commitment to human rights was recognised again.

In December 2009 the German Association of Judges awarded Anwar al-Bunni its prestigious human rights prize, recognition that is intended to strengthen and further respect for universal human rights and basic freedoms.

Those of us privileged enough to live in liberal democracies, where free speech is taken for granted, should keep good people like Anwar al-Bunni, Kamal al-Labwani, Mohannad al-Hussani, Haitham al-Maneh and Ma’an Aqil at the forefront of our thinking. We should not forget the sacrifice they and their families are making in order that, one day, they might enjoy those same freedoms. In that struggle, the Syrian government might remember that it is a signatory to the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ask itself how detention of these peaceful dissenters conforms with the commitments it has made as a member of the international community.

Whether in the UK, the US, Germany, or elsewhere in the EU, each of us should continue to hound our leaders to keep the Syrian regime under as much pressure as possible. It is only the spotlight remaining on the likes of Anwar, Kamal, Mohannad, Haitham and Ma’an that will ensure that Syria eventually faces up to its responsibilities – and its failure to adhere to the standards of conduct to be expected of a country that wants to be taken seriously on the international stage.