World Water Day marks launch of new Decade of Action – Water for Life

Updated - Tuesday 14 June 2005

World Water Day - 22 March 2005 - marks the start of a new UN International Decade for Action on water. The Water for Life Decade 2005-2015 will give a high profile to implementing water-related programmes and the participation of women. The UN hopes that the Decade will boost the chances of achieving international water-related goals and the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

Water, gender and poverty

Within Water for Life IRC will focus on water, gender and poverty alleviation.  Water and sanitation are critical factors to alleviate poverty and hunger, for sustainable development, for environmental integrity, and for human health.

Communities have complex priorities for the use of water for economic activity and for household use. Men and women often have different priorities and responsibilities. A gender focus is not simply about ‘involving women’. It is about recognising the roles of men and women, and ensuring that the voices of women, who are mainly responsible for household water but who also want economic activity, are acted on.

The first water decade – from 1981 to 1990 – brought water to over a billion people and sanitation to almost 77 million. But the job was only half done. There are still almost 1.1 billion people without adequate access to water and 2.4 billion without adequate sanitation. 

Woman from Sironko District, Uganda

This woman from the Sironko District of Uganda is a true citizen of the 21st century – a multi-tasking manager with daily performance targets. She wakes early to fetch water, store it, distribute it and manage sanitation facilities in the home. She goes to bed long after dark, when the cooking, cleaning, laundering and other chores are done. She probably has more work than her mother, being also responsible today for domestic animals. The 21st century woman participates in community development work, and uses her ‘spare’ time for income generating activities. She lives a high-pressure executive lifestyle, lacking only the income, the status, the holidays, the help in the home, a lifestyle consultant, a retirement date and a pension. Will the action decade -  Water for Life - make a real difference to her life?

Picture from Allen Wekoye, Uganda.

Progress on MDGs too slow

A UN Summit in September 2005 will review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. These include reducing by half the number of people without access to clean water and to safe sanitation by the year 2015. The report will say that progress is too slow, and more needs to be done – but more of what?

While creative technological solutions are certainly needed, the biggest challenges will be to ensure that the poorest people have access to clean water and safe sanitation, to help communities find sustainable ways to manage and pay for water and to develop acceptable ways of introducing safe latrines and of encouraging good hygiene practice.

The lesson of the first water decade is that pipes, cement and infrastructure could not do the job without engaging with people and communities. This remains a challenge for the Water for Life decade.

  •  The UN-Water website for the ‘Water for Life’ decade will open in February 2005. Background about the decade can be found at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Ask for details and materials from Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Two United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-2220, New York, NY 10017, USA, fax: + 1-212-963-4260. Please post details of World Water Day events at the website maintained by IRC.

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