Red Cross Red Crescent - International Year of Water 2003

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International Year of Water

Four out of every ten people currently live in areas experiencing water shortages. By 2025 these figures are expected to rise to as much as two thirds of the world's population - an estimated 5.5 billion people.

To address this crucial issue, the United Nations has declared 2003 the International Year of Freshwater. In March 2003, The Third World Water Forum and ministerial conference will take place in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka in Japan from March 16 - 23. The forum coincides with World Water Day which takes place annually on March 22.

Water and Sanitation are vital considerations for almost all Red Cross Red Crescent operations. The International Federation strives to enable communities to improve access to a safe and affordable water supply and sanitation by building volunteer and knowledge capacities.

This special section contains Red Cross Red Crescent water-related news, information about Red Cross Red Crescent water and sanitation programmes, water facts and images from Federation water and sanitation operations.

Related news and press releases


	Clean water changes lives in Afganistan 27 November 2003 In a district of Kandahar, the Afghan Red Crescent has made an indelible impression on the lives of the people living there. The community in Seedo Meer Street in the Low Wala district now enjoys safe, clean and easily accessible water.

	A long-term solution to Eritrea’s water shortage 13 November 2003 Like much of Eritrea, the region around Keren is suffering from a severe drought after years of poor rainfall. In the village of Balwa, the local water table has dropped over the past few months and the village well can barely supply Balwa’s inhabitants. But plans to build a sub-surface dam offer hope.

	Cambodia: safe water saves children's lives 02 October 2003 In rural Cambodia, one in ten children dies before his or her first birthday. A Cambodian Red Cross community hygiene and water purification project aims to reduce childhood mortality, thanks largely to ceramic water filters.

	Clean water scarce in Tajikistan 15 September 2003 The plight of Tajikistan’s thirsty poor was placed firmly in the international spotlight last week when the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan told delegates at the International Fresh Water Forum in Dushanbe about the huge effort required to provide basic water supplies and improve sanitation for thousands of rural communities.

	Uncontaminated water for Bangladeshi villages 05 June 2003 For 30 years, the presence of arsenic in supposedly 'clean' water supplies has been threatening the lives of millions of people in Bangladeshi villages.The Swiss Red Cross is promoting ways of providing uncontaminated water.

	Clean water for Sri Lanka flood victims 05 June 2003 The Sri Lankan Red Cross has been cleaning hundreds of contaminated wells to provide access to much needed drinking water for communities hit by the worst floods in the country for over 50 years.

	Red Cross mothers clean up Accra’s Big Gutter 28 March 2003 Why do a group of Ghanaian mothers wade every morning through a fetid, stinking canal, known to locals as Big Gutter? Because it is a breeding ground for malaria and other water-borne diseases, and these Red Cross volunteers understand the importance of clean water. “Without it you can't survive," they say.

PHOTO GALLERY: Guatemala - Water and sanitation

	Drought-hit Paraguayan Chaco gets life-saving water and hygiene 25 March 2003 The indigenous communities of Paraguay’s Chaco region have been hard hit by a devastating drought. What water remains is often contaminated, and diarrhoeal ailments have become common. As well as restoring water collection and storage systems, the Red Cross is passing on life-saving advice about hygiene.

	Water forum reveals need for common strategy 23 March 2003 The Third World Water Forum, which ended in Kyoto on 23 March, has highlighted the need for urgent measures to be taken to give millions of people access to safe water around the world, in particular making governments more accountable on the provision of clean drinking water.

	OPINION: Water: a human right still enjoyed by too few 21 March 2003 Last November, the United Nations declared access to water a basic human right. It is a right still denied to huge sections of the Earth’s population: millions die every year from water-borne diseases or poor sanitation. As the Third World Water Forum closes in Kyoto, Tadateru Konoe, Vice-President of the Japanese Red Cross Society, calls on the international community to make a renewed effort to provide this basic human right to all.

Governments need to deliver water as a human right 17 March 2003 "For the first time ever, World Water Day (March 22) is being marked this year with the knowledge that there is now a world-wide realization that water is a human right. Human dignity is not possible without access to clean water," said Didier Cherpitel, secretary general of the International Federation.

	Water in Zimbabwe: too little, too late, or simply too much 20 March 2003 Within the space of a week, the Sithole family have gone from having too much water to hardly any at all. First, they lost their house, land and property in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province in flooding. Now, they live in tents donated by the Zimbabwe Red Cross after being relocated to a barren place 50 km away.

	Iraq: access to clean water could be critical 19 March 2003 Lack of access to clean water could quickly have life-threatening consequences on vulnerable sections of the Iraqi population should war break out, the International Federation's head of delegation in Iraq, Sten Swedlund has warned.

	Eritrea: water brings health and education 19 March 2003 In the drought-hit Anseba region, children are often too tired to attend school after having walked through the night to fetch water. Now Eritrean Red Cross water deliveries have given these communities hope.

	Water and sanitation key to better health in the DPR Korea 18 March 2003 Recent studies are predicting that by 2020, the average water supply per person will decrease by one third worldwide. In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, that average value figure will be looked at with envy. For while the world is focusing on nuclear issues inside the country, a more vivid threat for the northern half of the Korean peninsula, is water.

	Disaster Preparedness highlighted at World Water Forum 17 March 2003 The Third World Water Forum opened in Kyoto, Japan, yesterday and featured the work of the Red Cross Red Crescent worldwide in ensuring better protection for the most vulnerable against disasters linked to climate change.

	Giving clean water back to Turkey's quake-hit communities 07 February 2003 Following the two 1999 earthquakes, which devastated north-western Turkey killing 18,000, local people were deprived of clean drinking water. Now the International Federation and the Turkish Red Crescent has repaired - and handed back to the community - a water treatment plant.

	Red Cross brings water and hope to Nairobi orphans 20 January 2003 As the world marks International Year of Fresh Water, the Kenya Red Cross working with orphans in Nairobi has shown that simple ecological measures like the use of solar energy, rainwater harvesting and basic hygiene and health education can make a big difference.

	Pipe dreams come true for East Timor's rural communities 18 December 2002 The East Timorese village of Saboria has received its first water tank, bathhouse and latrines. Part of a major water and sanitation project being conducted by the local Red Cross, it will only succeed if accompanied by health and hygiene education.

	Battling floods and disease in the Dominican Republic 30 October 2003 Every time it rains in the poor neighbourhood of Ribera del Ozama, on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, Aida Montero´s home fills with dark, stinking water. A new canal being built by the Dominican Red Cross and the local community, is going to keep her house dry.

	Clean water for Afghan refugees 26 September 2002 A fourth consecutive year of drought in Pakistan's Baluchistan province is affecting the supply of drinking water to Afghan refugees living in camps. The Red Cross and Red Crescent is working to ensure that the large numbers of refugees have access to clean water every day.

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