Introduction

Abstract

Water is life. Lack of it leads to illness, misery and death. It is a grave fact that according to reports of the United Nations (UN) in 2012 more than 780 million people rely on unsafe potable water and another 2.5 billion people have no access to sanitation. Almost two million children die each year for want of clean water and clean toilets. A recent example of this water crisis is the outbreak of cholera in 2008 in Zimbabwe, spread by water contaminated with human excrement, leaving the population of the whole country without clean and safe water for several weeks. Another dramatic example is that of Haiti. The initial disaster, the earthquake of 12 January 2010, was followed by a devastating water crisis. Tremors from the initial earthquake demolished the water pipes, allowing seawater to seep into the drinking water supplies and rats to multiply in the sewer systems, making Haiti’s freshwater undrinkable for weeks. With no other water sources available, many Haitians nevertheless consumed the contaminated drinking water for weeks, causing a dramatic cholera epidemic. As a third example, South Pacific Island States were confronted with severe water shortages as a consequence of low rainfall in 2011. Rising sea levels exacerbated the crisis by contaminating the groundwater. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Tuvalu and Tokelau heavily depended on foreign aid in terms of bottled water supply. These examples show that, despite remarkable advances in some areas of the world in order to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, the global water crisis is evident, in particular amongst the poor rural population. The imperative for the international community to act in order to protect the planet’s “blue gold” could not be more urgent.

All cited webpages were last accessed on 1 August 2013.