World Water Day 2005: Water for Life
Join the movement for action around the World Water Day, 22 March of each year

UN to launch Water for Life 2005 - 2015, International Decade for Action

World Water Day on 22 March 2005 sees the dawn of the UN International decade for water. The theme of the decade echoes what WaterAid has been saying for years: water for life.

It is aimed at helping ensure that the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are met. The MDGs aim to halve world poverty by 2015 by halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation, reducing child mortality by one third and ensuring that all of the world's children gain access to primary education.

Water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) contained in Chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21. 

The United Nations General Assembly at its 58th session in December 2003 agreed to proclaim the years 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action, "Water for Life", and beginning with World Water Day, March 22, 2005.  

The Water for Life decade sets the world's goals on “a greater focus on water-related issues, while striving to ensure the participation of women in water-related development efforts, and further cooperation at all levels to achieve water-related goals of the Millennium Declaration, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the World Summit for Sustainable Development and Agenda 21.”  The assembly called upon the relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, regional commissions and other organisations of the United Nations to deliver a coordinated response, utilizing existing resources and voluntary funds, to make “Water for Life” a “decade for action”. his Day was first observed in 1993 and seeks to raise public awareness, and focus attention on the vital need to protect and conserve water resources and supplies of drinking water.

This Day is therefore a unique occasion to remind everybody of the extreme importance of water for maintaining the environment and increasing development in human societies. Practical efforts can help us to increase worldwide awareness of both problems and solutions. To make a difference our tasks consist in turning words into commitment and action, in the framework of a general theme.

Each year, one of the nominated UN agencies is in charge of celebrating and promoting a new theme, guided by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) on water resources.

UN Resolution 58/217 highlights how important water and sanitation are to achieving all of the goals, stating that:

"…water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the eradication of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being……The goals of the Decade should be a greater focus on water-related issues at all levels and on the implementation of water-related programmes and projects, while striving to ensure the participation and involvement of women in water-related development efforts."With over 5000 children dying each day due to water-related diseases, and many millions more having to spend large parts of the day fetching and carrying water, the impact that reliable sources of clean water can make towards the MDGs is clear.With a secure, close supply of clean water and the health benefits this brings, children have time to go to school, health costs are reduced, women have time to work and families can begin to help themselves out of poverty.Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General said:"We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking-water, sanitation and basic health care."

Our five year strategy aims to enable a further 500,000 people to gain access to water and 500,000 people to gain access to sanitation every year by 2010. WaterAid's extensive experience in the delivery of basic water services to developing counties means that we are in a unique position to speak about and advise others on water provision.

The first water decade from 1981 to 1990 brought water to over a billion people and sanitation to almost 770 million. Much more still needs to be done. Safe water supply and adequate sanitation to protect health are among the basic human rights. Today, there are still almost 1.1 billion people who have inadequate access to water and 2.4 billion without appropriate sanitation.