The international community (i.e. the United Nations, UNICEF, WHO) has put for no small amount of effort providing relief to communities, regions and countries in need of clean, accessible water. Large amounts of time, energy and money have been spent in the last decade toward this noble cause and the effects of these initiatives have improved countless lives throughout the world. Alongside these governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities have also been playing a significant part. While drastically smaller in resources, both political and monetary, certain NGOs and charities have been able to put forth incredible results. What fundamental difference exists between the UN’s and international community’s efforts and those of the smaller NGOs? It’s the difference between “top-down” and “bottom-up” models of operations.
The United Nations (UN) and its subsidiaries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), have put forth a concerted effort over the last decade in an aim to end this global problem. Through initiatives like the UN ‘Water for Life’ Decade, and programs such as the UNICEF ‘Tap’ Project, the international community appears to be taking the problem to heart.
The UN, has spearheaded several initiatives concerning improving water access around the world, specifically in developing countries. It accomplishes its goals through the formation of committees and funds as well as passing resolutions that shape international law. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are a set of 8 objectives the UN set out for itself in 2000, spanning a wide range of global issues. Each individual MDG is again broken up into several subsections. Millennium Development Goal ...
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...olitical capital, these three groups in particular are incredible examples of what can be done on a global level, with zero governmental backing.
Ready access to clean water is growing globally. While over 700 million people globally continue to struggle with the problem, the future does seem to be getting brighter. The United Nations and its partners deserve an incredible amount of credit for all the headway they have made in the last 20 years attempting to solve an issue this large. However, the incredible effectiveness of the aforementioned NGOs goes to prove that the dichotomy between these two fundamentally different methodologies shows the international community needs to take a step back to re-examine their strategy. The UN could benefit greatly by adopting more community-focused, bottom-up initiatives in order to provide more effective and immediate results.
...lk about projects such as these two,we must bear in mind that there are relatively great chances for the government to atleast have awareness of the underlying practices and situation. If we use the alternatives, it will incur cost but it will let go of the sacrifices and compromises poverty stricken nations have to pay. On the stakeholders i.e. the general masses it will be beneficial as they will be paid for their work in legal framework and will be provided water products in the market (Me, 2014).
...million people each year, so that’s 6,000 children every day. Waterborne children are particularly vulnerable to waterborne diseases. Their small bodies take in a disproportionately large quantity of water and its contaminants, and their immune systems are not equipped to fight off bacteria such as E. Coli, Giardia and the Typhoid bacteria. More than 2 million children are killed by such diarrheal diseases each year, and 90 percent of them are kids under five. Global warming is also exacerbating this crisis as severe, prolonged droughts dry up water supplies in barren regions and heavy rains because sewage overflows. In terms of the sheer number of people affected, the lack of access to safe water and basic sanitation is a massive problem. Yet it is a problem with a variety of solutions. People who fall ill from borne diseases their bodies can’t function very well.
... upon solution to water access disagreements, social and political powers must be willing to compromise since the risks associated with disagreements regarding water allocation may be too great. As stated by Shiyyab (2004), “If sustained over a period of time, these problems will directly affect social harmony, domestic stability and eventually, regional peace.” (p. 30). Investments must be made by industry as well as local and national governments for purification of wastewater so that clean water, when needed, will be available. The necessity of obtaining water is a fundamental human right and,
...ch have too much heat and too little water (xxxi). A simple distiller that consists of a steel and glass pot can transform salt water into fresh, drinkable water (xxxii). It is stated that a distiller can create 8-11 liters of water per day (xxxii). Since the first 1,000 day window of the life of a human being is most important in determining their growth, mothers should be given free therapeutic foods prior labor in order to be able to breastfeed their children. With the help of NGOs and local volunteers, accessible toilets should be constructed. There are countless programs that seek to make developing countries more sustainable and healthier; these include Action Against Hunger, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and The Water Project. The rivers of the nation should be kept as clean as possible and regulated so that toxic waste is not dumped into them.
Water has become a very controversial issue in the United States and around the world. As populations increase and resources decrease, the way we use our resources and keep populations safe become more and more important. Throughout the world there are nearly 1.1 billion people who do not have access the clean drinking water. 5 Most of these 1.1 billion people are located in poor areas and do not have the financial means to build the infrastructures needed to provide water to the citizens of their country. 5 Drinking water is an essential part of our everyday life. People must have water to survive, but it must be clean and safe to consume.
They are working to provide safe drinking water to over 60% of the people through water pumps. The UNDP are now providing a small scale enterprise for those that don’t have access to formal financial services. BIBLIOGRAPHY Digby, B. (2000). Changing Environment, Heinemann, Oxford. (2001).
When considering the concepts of human rights and state sovereignty, the potential for conflict between the two is evident. Any humanitarian intervention by other actors within the international system would effectively constitute a violation of the traditional sovereign rights of states to govern their own domestic affairs. Thus, the answer to this question lies in an examination of the legitimacy and morality of humanitarian intervention. While traditionally, the Westphalian concept of sovereignty and non-intervention has prevailed, in the period since the Cold War, the view of human rights as principles universally entitled to humanity, and the norm of enforcing them, has developed. This has led to the 1990’s being described as a ‘golden
Clean water is needed for good human and animal health, but as DoSomething.org states, over 1 billion people worldwide don’t have a means of getting clean drinking water, an...
Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waster for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water that is available to humans. It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today. The first step is worldwide awareness of the water crisis: governments and the citizens they govern worldwide need to know about this problem and be actively involved in solving this problem.
United Nations, (2013) the millennium development goals report 2013 [ONLINE] United Nations. Available at: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/mdgs-report-2013.html [Accessed on 26 December 2013]
The other kind of International Organization (IO) is the NGO which are primarily non-profit private organizations that engage in a variety of international activities (Pease, 2012 p. 4). They are able to particip...
Have you ever had to walk miles away just to get clean drinking water, or don’t even not have access to clean drinking water? People all over the world, even in North America, don’t have access to clean drinking water or have to walk very far just to drink water. The main areas where this problem is prominent is in third world countries, and this is due to the lack of money and sanitation (Millions Lack Safe Water). Due to this lack of sanitation, water borne diseases can grow and infect people who consume it. Clean water is very important for life, and within this paper I will explain why we need it, how it can affect us, and what it will take to obtain clean water.
Some individuals don’t appreciate the advantage of having clean water available at all times. Habitants of developed countries who have easy access to clean drinkable water directly from a hose, tap water from the kitchen faucet or from bathrooms in their homes, usually don’t care or worry about saving it. Habitants of rural poor communities such as Sub-Saharan Africa, are living in a water stressed environment. Residents of these communities have to walk miles at a time just to gather water from streams and ponds, even though the water source may contain water-borne disease that can make them very sick. In the rural areas that don’t have access to safe, clean water, it is very difficult to prevent the spread of viruses.
In the year 2000 the United Nations set out a goal to stop hunger poverty and unfair living to people of the world not just the United States. This idea was called the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Upon taking on a task such as this the UN wanted to break down goals in sections of eight to better categorize them to use every resource they had to make this plan possible. Not every catgeroy had the same plan put in place and for that exact reason these goals where not something to be done over night, hence how the name of the idea started with millennium. The UN has also been known for their work to gather its members and countries as one to work to accomplish its goals of maintaining peace and security, they wanted to protect human rights by providing humanitarian assistance, and assisting economic and social development throught the world. This gives us a better idea of what MDG project is for and how it was created.
Many people around the world need water. Around 780 million people are unable to get clean water (One Billion Affected). People who do have access to clean water in their homes, have to pay a fee. The people who struggle to live obviously do not have enough money to buy water. People who are unable to have clean water have a good chance of dying either from disease or from dehydration. At least 3.4 million people die a year from water problems such as sanitation (One Billion Affected).