KEY POINTS:
Whether it's pouring from the skies or surging up from the seas, water is all over the news. This week the Ruapehu crater lake finally spilled, Australia is struggling with a drought that has parched farmlands, and floods have brought death and devastation in Mozambique. It's surprising that we need World Water Day at all.
But we are in the depths of a global water crisis, up to our necks in what aid agencies are calling a silent emergency. Yet global leaders and the international community are doing very little about it.
Already, extreme water shortages are occurring in many parts of the world; not just Africa but large swathes of China, India, Mexico, America and Australia.
Water use has grown at more than twice the rate of the world's population over the last century.
The United Nations say we need 50 litres of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitation, yet the average person in the developing world survives on 10 litres a day - the same amount we use to flush a toilet. According to the United Nations Fund for Children (Unicef), unclean water and poor sanitation is the second biggest killer of children globally, hardly surprising given that one billion people lack even minimal access to running water and 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation. It is estimated that unsafe water and a lack of sanitation and hygiene claim the lives of more than 1.5 million children every year.
An African child is 520 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than a child born in Europe or America.
The reasons are climate change, as well as a lack of political will and spending. There is also a diabolical shortage of infrastructure and adequate sanitation.
Changing weather patterns are already causing drought in countries such as Kenya, Mali and Zimbabwe, but wet areas are likely to become wetter still, causing devastating floods and loss of life.
An increase in droughts will force many people to search for more fertile land, leading to mass migrations of what the UN is calling environmental refugees. Many will spill into cities as they can no longer survive in rural areas.
In all of this, it is children who are the most vulnerable. This problem affects more than 400 million children around the world and has appalling effects on all aspects of a child's life.
Over 40 billion work hours are lost in Africa each year because of the time taken to fetch drinking water. Many children, particularly girls, are prevented from going to school, squandering their intellectual and economic potential.
The UN has prioritised water access among its Millennium Development Goals, aiming to halve the number of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. There is, in fact, more than enough water available to meet everyone's basic needs. But because of unfair distribution, logistical problems and lack of spending on infrastructure, irrigation and water harvesting, that goal is a long way from being scored.
If the international community can tackle issues like debt and poor trade treaties, why has it been so reticent in grappling with this far more fundamental roadblock to prosperity? At any one time, half the working population of Africa and Asia is unwell because of poor water quality. With ready access to water, poor countries would at least have a fighting chance to work themselves out of poverty.
Providing clean water is not a panacea for all of Africa's and Asia's woes - but it is a pretty good start. For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, there is about $6 in economic returns - and that is not taking into account the lives saved.
There are schemes like those in which Unicef has joined Contours Gyms around New Zealand to raise money for toilets and water pumps in the rural villages of Laos.
It costs $4500 to install a water pump, a latrine block and give hygiene training in schools. With an average of 150 pupils per school, this amounts to a cost per pupil of just $30. And the New Zealand Government has pledged to match every dollar raised.
It's a hard sell raising money for toilets and obviously it's only a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. Governments need to get back to basics, redouble their efforts globally and rejig priorities - something that world leaders have been criminally slow in doing so far.
A little over three years ago, politicians at the G8 conference in Evian, France, announced a water initiative backed with the promise of cash . They have yet to make good on these promises.
Achieving the millennium development goal on water and sanitation would cost about $10 billion a year. To put that figure into perspective, it's about half of what rich countries spend on mineral water.
* Georgina Newman is Unicef's communications manager
No ebb, all flow makes a country lucky
New Zealanders don't generally have to worry too much about our water supply. We have endured water shortages at one time or another but, unlike many other countries, we are not faced with ongoing problems of water scarcity that hinder our ability to survive or make a living.
Worldwide more than one billion people live in areas where water is in short supply.
More than one-third of the world's population has no access to sanitation facilities because of this.
This water crisis is predicted to worsen.
In the last century, global water consumption rose six-fold, more than double the rate of population growth.
As freshwater resources continue to disappear, the World Bank estimates that by 2035 three billion people will have no access to any safe water - most in developing countries which lack the infrastructure and support systems to deal with this impending crisis.
On average, every New Zealander uses between 160 and 330 litres of water a day. In sub-Saharan Africa the average is 10 to 20 litres a day.
The benefit of improved access to water can be seen in the Kenyan community of Emali where ChildFund New Zealand recently drillied a borehole and dug two shallow wells close to villages.
These wells have reduced the time it takes to collect water from more than six hours to 30 minutes, making a dramatic impact on the lives of the women of the region. . With readily available clean water and extra time the women are now growing additional food and running micro-enterprise projects to earn an income.
It is humbling to think that something we take for granted is so precious - literally the difference between life and death - to those who have so little.
* Paul Brown is National Director ChildFund NZ
FYI
For more information about ChildFund call 0800 223 111 or go to Childfund.org.nz
To donate to Unicef's clean water appeal go to Unicef.org.nz or ring 0800 800 194
