Can There Be Environmental Sustainability Without Water?

Water is essential to keep lives going. World Water Day, which is celebrated every March 22nd, raises awareness of the global water crisis. Its central focus is on achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which is Water and Sanitation for all by 2030. We must create awareness because about 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water. World Water Day is all about what water means to you, the importance of water, and its role in people’s lives.

What Does Environmental Sustainability Mean?

According to the United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development, Environmental Sustainability is about acting to ensure future generations have the natural resources available to live an equal, if not better, way of life as current generations. It allows for man’s present needs to be met without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs.

Why Should We Value Water?

The value of water does not depend on its quantity alone but on other factors such as its quality, location, reliability of access, and time of availability. Water looks out for our households, food, culture, health, education, economies, and the integrity of our natural environment. If any of these values are overlooked, a risk will occur, which leads to mismanagement as water is a finite, irreplaceable resource.

An inclusive understanding of water’s actual multidimensional value is vital to safeguard this critical resource for everyone’s benefit. Water has become so much part of our everyday existence. Understanding and acknowledging its importance to today’s lifestyles is crucial to valuing its role in our lives. To value water means to value our future.

Importance of Water

Water is fast becoming a scarce resource across the globe, but at the same time, it is dynamic to all industries and essential to sustainable economic growth and development. Its importance include:

• Provision of raw materials for the production of goods and services.
• Use for manufacturing, energy production, food production, transportation of materials across the globe.
• Human sustenance, health, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation, conflict prevention, human security, and for dignity.

There cannot be Environmental Sustainability without water. According to a Newspaper publication, ‘Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability’, water is intricately linked to all the United Nations’ other 16 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), as competition gets remixed with mutual support, trade-offs and synergies.

Conclusion

Water is a prerequisite for Environmental Sustainability as it has the potential to suffice as a connector between different policy areas and economic sectors and between nations. Water is essential for life, and it must be clean for usage. Most developed countries don’t think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation, unlike in developing nations where the search for safe drinking water could be a daily crisis. Millions of people die each year, and most of them are children without access to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6).

Author: Gift Ifokwe

Photo: energyandcarbonmanagement.com