Water sustainability, it is everyone’s problem!

By STEPHANY DOT, THE PEOPLE’S DAILY

The High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, is working on a subject that is of relevance to every human being on our planet, water sustainability. We now know very well that we live in a world where nothing can be retained within a State’s borders, be it refugees, economic issues, products, ideas, or of course, water. Water management and pollution is a problem that affects everyone, and therefore it is a problem that should be addressed by every State and worked on as a team. During our press conference, we heard from the Chinese delegate who very clearly stated that countries have to work together, that a platform to share ideas and technological development is crucial to being able to get good results. Countries who do not suffer from water shortages, can’t see themselves as not concerned by the issue. They should, be a part of a platform to help other countries, sell their technologies and ideas, and work as a team to get the best results possible. The Chinese delegate was grateful because this Forum has enabled this.
The Republic of South Korea talked about ‘The Affordable Program,’ an 18 billion dollars program, which is being implemented by the government. The main objective of this program is to develop Korea’s infrastructure, for instance water treatment facilities, water filter facilities, and distribution systems. The delegates agreed that a platform is needed, so that the countries who are not as lucky as South Korea economically, can progress through politics.
The People’s Daily took the initiative of opening a section of this article to two African countries who would like to use our newspaper to make known a problem that their country faces. The delegates of Congo and Togo, were very thankful to us for taking this initiative, and for giving them a voice. Congo’s main problem as identified by its delegate is that most indigenous communities lack essential needs, like water sanitation, to drink and to cook their food, which of course results in the spread of diseases. Togo, when given the opportunity, identified his country’s main problem very similar to Congo’s. He said that what the country needs is good infrastructure to be able to provide water to everyone. There is no sewage system, no infrastructure that provides drinkable water to their rural communities, and the people end up disposing of their waste in the same place they go to get water to cook, and to drink. This obviously is a “vicious circle”. We highly appreciate the participation of the delegates in our press conference, and they eagerness to share their views with us, and we apologize to those delegates who wanted to share their opinions but were not able to do so because of time matters.