River basins ‘vital for growth’

The world’s top river basin regions have a vital role in the future in terms of sustaining economic growth in the future, a report has suggested. However, current projections show that seven of the top 10 areas are currently using unsustainable volumes of water.

Campaigners hope that the Rio Summit deliver policies that improves global water management. Picture Courtesy: BBC NEWS

A UN report said the global target of halving the number of people in the world without access to safe drinking water was achieved in March 2012. The report was commissioned by HSBC, WWF, Earthwatch and WaterAid. The document, Exploring the Links between Water and Economic Growth, produced by Frontier Economics, recorded that almost 800 million remained without access to safe drinking water, while 2.5 bn were without basic access to sanitation.

The report’s authors estimate that nations would see their GDP improve by up to 15 percent if the global Millennium Development Targets were achieved.

A report published by the UN in March said the international community had achieved the goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water.

In the past 20 years, two billion people have gained access to improved drinking water.

However, it acknowledged that global targets to improve sanitation were unlikely to be met by the 2015 deadline. The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) lists 75 percent of the world’s population benefiting from improved sanitation, yet figures suggest that only 63 percent of the world’s population currently have improved sanitation access, a figure projected to increase only to 67 percent by 2015.

This means that 2.5 bn people are still without the level of sanitation outlined in the MDGs.

The report by Frontier Economics listed a number of avenues that need to be addressed in order for the ‘water challenge’ to be addressed.

As well as improving the access to drinking water and sanitation, it also listed the need for great efficiency in the way water is consumed within agriculture, industry and domestic sectors.

Courtesy: BBC NEWS