FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2002
Asia facing serious water woes: UN
AFP
BANGKOK: The United Nations highlighted Asia's water woes Friday as much of the region marked UN World Water Day with no clean access to Earth's most precious natural resource.
The world's most populous region faces a host of water-related hurdles, including poor delivery and management systems, limited sanitation facilities and a lack of conservation programmes, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) said.
"Globally, two-thirds of the population is without proper access to clean water, and 80 per cent of them are also without access to proper sanitation," UNESCAP's Ravi Sawhney said in a statement to mark the day.
Sawhney said the region's water woes were particularly gruelling for millions of Asian women, who walk several kilometres each day on quests for clean water.
"As the world's population increases, demand for water also increases," he said.
The problem is often aggravated by poor water systems, he added, saying that in some Asian countries water supply is being depleted at five times the international average.
"It's not because people there are drinking more water," Sawhney said. "Water is being wasted."
The UN said lack of proper sanitation was a serious issue for people in the Asia Pacific region.
"In many countries in this region arsenic contamination is becoming a very serious problem," Sawhney added. "If the problem is not tackled soon, it could go out of control, endangering the lives of many thousands or millions."
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