springende bisschoppen

au bord de la rivière






bron

Free access to safe drinking water is denied to millions of people, with dramatic consequences. In fact, contaminated water causes one and a half million deaths per year, and forces more than 2.5 billion people to live without basic sanitary conditions. Amongst the causes which deprive a sixth of the world’s population of this fundamental resource are the scarcity of supply and pollution.

The Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the European Union and Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) which met in Budapest, proposed global measures to improve the hygienic situation, conserve rainforests, and severely punish those who pollute water.

Two priorities were highlighted during the course of the meeting in the Hungarian capital: to guarantee access to safe drinking water in the poorest regions of the world and to identify the nature and competency of a world governance of water resources. Improving the hygienic/sanitary structures is also necessary: in developing countries, 70% of untreated refuse end up in the waters, causing contamination. Industry, agriculture but also simple malfunctions of a common sewage system are major contributors to the contamination.According to recent United Nations statistics, a child dies every two seconds due to poor sanitary conditions. The Joint Assembly considers it necessary to construct more wells in the villages and shantytowns and to find innovative solutions such as chlorine pills to combat epidemics, especially cholera, which are connected to water pollution.