Unveiling a new exhibit at U.N. headquarters highlighting one of the Earth's most precious resources, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for greater efforts to ensure the most basic of human needs-safe water. “Safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development, and crucial for achieving any and every one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Ban said, referring to the global targets to reduce poverty, illiteracy, disease, and other social problems by 2015. Speaking at the opening of the exhibit on water and sanitation, organized by the American Museum of Natural History and the U.N. Department of Public Information, Ban noted that living in New York City makes it easy to forget just how precious clean water is. “We turn on a tap and it gushes out. We walk into any corner store, and shelves groan under its bottled weight. Yard space, rather than sprinklers, is the scarce commodity. And rain brings consternation, not relief,” the secretary-general said. However, the “sobering reality” is that the planet's water supplies are under great stress due to high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management practices, pollution, inadequate investment in infrastructure, and low-efficiency water use, Ban said. Every day, the lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation claims about 6,000 lives, most of them children, the secretary-general said. Some 700 million lives in 43 countries are affected by water scarcity, and by 2025, that number could grow to more than 3 billion, he warned. In addition, in many areas climate change will likely make a bad situation worse, causing floods in some parts and droughts in others, Ban said, stressing the urgent need for integrated and sustainable approaches to water resource management.
