The World Health Organisation estimates that one in four people, ie around 2 billion, lack clean drinking water and almost half of the world’s population, ie around 3.6 billion people, lack proper sanitation conditions.
According to Secretary General of the Ministry of the Environment Meelis Münt, who is representing Estonia at the meeting, more than one billion euros has been invested in the renovation of Estonia’s water and sewerage systems in the last decade. ‘The most pressing environmentally hazardous hotspots have been eliminated, but we continue to struggle with the alarming amount of nutrients entering bodies of water from the mainland,’ noted Münt. ‘Experience shows that we need to change our approach and start monitoring marine areas along with each river that discharges into the sea. This comprehensive source-to-sea approach will allow us to better understand where the pollution is actually coming from, as well as where and how to most efficiently reduce the pollution of marine waters,’ he explained.
The UN Water Conference calls on countries to deliver on past promises in order to achieve universal access to compliant potable water and sanitation and hygiene conditions by 2030. The two co-hosts of the Water Conference, the Netherlands and Tajikistan, hope to prepare an action plan at the meeting to expedite countries taking the steps required to tackle water and sanitation challenges.
As the current Chair of the UN Water Convention, Estonia will host a side event on Wednesday with Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Slovenia, Switzerland and the UN secretariat of the Water Convention entitled ‘Speeding up transboundary water cooperation: the value of the Water Convention’. This is a topical issue in several African, Latin American and Asian countries, which have recently joined the Convention.
The first day of the Water Conference coincides with World Water Day, which this year also calls on countries to act faster to tackle water challenges.
