Leaving No One Behind: World Water Day

A water worker fills a drinking water truck near Manchay, Lima, Peru, December 24, 2015. © J. Ashley Nixon

 

Disponible en español aquí

Today, billions of people around the world are still living with no or limited access to safe water. In their households, schools, workplaces, farms and even their workplaces too many are struggling to survive and thrive. Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need.

World Water Day

Every year, on March 22 is World Water Day, one of the annual observances marked by the United Nations in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals.

The theme in 2019 was “Leaving No One Behind’. It comes from the central pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit.

Leaving No One Behind

Today is a day to reflect on, what the United Nations recognized in 2010 as, “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” The human right to water entitles everyone, without discrimination, to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use.

Quebrada Verde: Water for Life

Quebrada Verde is close enough to the River Lurín to access groundwater via a communal well that was built many years ago. But the supply was unreliable and unsafe, contaminated with a variety of diseases. In 1997, it was replaced by another, deeper well with an electric pump that allowed for the community-wide distribution of running water. This project and associated sanitation improvements and creation of a community kitchen resulted from the work of Oficina de Asesoría y Consultoría Ambiental (OACA), a Peruvian NGO based in Lima. Their project was supported by money raised by Water for Kids, a charity founded in 1996 by David Clapham and other environmental health officer’s working with Bradford Metropolitan Council, Yorkshire, England after they visited Lima to provide advice on water and sanitation issues to OACA. It was the organization’s first project and they continue to work on water development projects around the world.

Quebrada Verde is a demonstration of how a community, when safe and reliable water is supplied, has the chance to develop sustainably through better health and livelihoods.

Water and Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water for all by 2030.

By definition, this means leaving no one behind. We cannot move forward as a global society while so many people are living without safe water.

Water and Developing Communities in Peru

Water for Life in Quebrada Verde, Peru is featured in my book published in 2018 Developing Communities in Peru: Manchay, Quebrada Verde, and the Lurin Valley. You can see this (as a flip through review) and more photographs in my Portfolio (see top menu on this page).

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