SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR PREVENTION OF GROUNDWATER POLLUTION, IN MESSAGE FOR WORLD WATER DAY, 22 MARCH
Press Release
SG/SM/6496
OBV/40
SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR PREVENTION OF GROUNDWATER POLLUTION, IN MESSAGE FOR WORLD WATER DAY, 22 MARCH
19980319 Following is the text of a message by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of World Water Day, 22 March:This year's World Water Day is devoted to groundwater. It may be that because we cannot see this precious resource, some of us fail to appreciate its immense importance. Yet if we exclude fresh water locked up in polar ice caps and glaciers, groundwater aquifers hold 97 per cent of the world's fresh water. In arid or semi-arid regions, it is often the only source of drinking water.
Groundwater is fragile. Growing populations, urbanization and industrialization are taking a severe toll on its quantity and quality, while the planet's need for water never ceases to grow. The resulting pollution is all the more alarming as polluted groundwater is very difficult to purify, given its relative inaccessibility, huge volume and slow flow rates. The water movement is so slow, in fact, that some groundwater being used today is derived from rain that fell to the earth's surface tens of thousands of years ago. By the time pollution is detected in water drawn from wells, the contamination can be irreversible.
Such damage jeopardizes the survival of the entire surrounding region on all levels -- from the economy to food security, from social structures to health.
Prevention is the key word. At the international level, we must redouble our efforts and follow up on the impressive work done by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other parts of the United Nations system. At the national level, the vulnerability of a country's aquifers must be assessed, and pollutant inputs identified and restricted. An early warning programme should warn us of possible future threats.
We sometimes hear that in the third millennium, wars will be fought over water. But we also know that to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Let us act now to protect this precious and undervalued resource. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren, and to the survival of the planet.
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