Dear Members,
As the world population increases, water use triples. Water is important for the home, for agriculture, sanitation, health, for industries and for the survival of the entire ecosystem. The UN General Assembly in 1992 set aside March 22
nd of every year as Water Day to raise awareness and focus attention on the importance of fresh water and sustainable use and management of fresh water resources. The 6
th Goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses on availability of clean and safe water to all by 2030. This Goal needs to be achieved as it is estimated that over 650 million live far away from clean water supply sources.
Water scarcity and water stress are becoming realities and major development challenges for many African countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of water stressed countries of any region in the world. By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with full-fledged water scarcity. Sustainable agriculture, industrialization and urbanization all require copious amounts of water. When communities lack water, education suffers as children have to trek longer distances in search of water. Health takes a nosedive as sanitation is hard to maintain and diseases spread more easily. People are poorer and hungrier. Women and children mostly bear the brunt of water shortages as they have to trek long distances to get clean water or they make do with contaminated water with attendant health implications.
This year’s theme is ‘
WasteWater’. Waste water could be ‘black water’, that is heavily polluted waste water for example water from the toilet. It could be ‘graywater’ – lightly polluted water from bathing, kitchen sinks and washing machines. Rainwater that is harvested - ‘greenwater’ is a form of wastewater too.
What can libraries do to help manage the impending water crises? How can we weigh in to assist in achieving SDGs Goal 6? Proactive information dissemination of course on water issues using the theme - WasteWater. We can do the following -
Find below posters you may use. Of course you can make them bigger on paper or flex or even make better ones!