Commemorating World Water Day, a pivot event will be hosted on 19 March 2019 at the Palais des Nations, home of the United Nations Office at Geneva. During the event, the United Nations World Water Development Report 2019 will be launched and the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize announced.
World Water Day is an international day observed by the United Nations. It has been celebrated globally every year for more than 20 years following the United Nations General Assembly’s designation of 22 March as ‘World Water Day’ in 1993.
2019 Theme: Leaving no one behind
In 2019, OHCHR and UNHCR lead the coordination of World Water Day under the theme of “Leaving no one behind”. ‘Leaving no one behind’ is the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit. 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.
Today, billions of people are still living without safe water, which means ‘safely managed drinking water service’: water that is accessible on the premises, available when needed, and free from contamination. Their households, schools, workplaces, farms, and factories 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.
Water, a human right
In 2010, the UN recognized “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; which includes water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation, and personal and household hygiene.
People are left behind without safe water for many different reasons. The following are some of the ‘grounds for discrimination’ that cause certain people to be particularly disadvantaged when it comes to accessing water:
- Sex and gender
- Race, ethnicity, religion, birth, caste, language, and nationality
- Disability, age, and health status
- Property, tenure, residence, economic and social status
- Other factors, such as environmental degradation, climate change, population growth, conflict, forced displacement and migration flows can also disproportionately affect marginalized groups through impacts on water.
To ‘leave no one behind’, we must focus our efforts towards including people who have been marginalized or ignored. Water services must meet the needs of marginalized groups and their voices must be heard in decision-making processes. Regulatory and legal frameworks must recognize the right to water for all people, and sufficient funding must be fairly and effectively targeted at those who need it most.
World Water Day is coordinated by UN-Water – the UN’s inter-agency collaboration mechanism for all freshwater related issues – in collaboration with governments and partners.
Find the program for the Commemoration of World Water Day here.
