Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is expected to visit New York from March 21-23 to participate in the UN events dedicated to the International Decade of Action “Water for Sustainable Development.”
While in New York, Tajik is also scheduled to hold talks with senior representatives of the United Nations, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Meanwhile, a report released by a panel of 11 Heads of State, including Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, and a Special Advisor, in particular, notes that with 700 million people worldwide at risk of being displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030, water infrastructure investment must be at least doubled over the next five years.
The report titled Making Every Drop Count: An Agenda for Water Action calls for a fundamental shift in the way the world manages water so that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 6 on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, can be achieved.
According to the report, 40 per cent of the world’s people are being affected by water scarcity. If not addressed, as many as 700 million could be displaced by 2030 in search for water. More than two billion people are compelled to drink unsafe water and more than 4.5 billion do not have safely managed sanitation services.
The report says women and girls suffer disproportionately when water and sanitation are lacking, affecting health and often restricting work and education opportunities. Some 80 per cent of wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment and water-related disasters account for 90 per cent of the 1,000 most devastating natural disasters since 1990.
“It is my deep belief that water is a matter of life and death,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented upon receiving the report on March 14, noting that 60 per cent of human body is water.
The panel, created in 2016 for an initial period of two years, is advocating for evidence-based policies and innovative approaches at the global, national and local level to make water management as well as water and sanitation services attractive for investment and more disaster-resilient.
The panel calls for policies that will allow for at least a doubling of investment in water infrastructure in the next five years.
The report also highlights the essential need for partnerships between Governments, communities, the private sector and researchers.
