Sustainable Access to Water: A WHO Perspective

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Recommended: Importance of water resources

According to World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines of Right to Water, “Accessibility to water includes a continuous supply of a minimum amount of water which is sufficient for drinking, personal and domestic hygiene, for an affordable price, within a reasonable distance”. According to WHO basic access can be defined as the availability of at least 20 litres of drinking water per person per day within a distance of not more than 1 km of the dwelling. (UN Water Taskforce, 2010)
Sustainable access to water has two components:
a) Environmental sustainability
b) Functional sustainability.
Environmental sustainability refers to environmental protection through limiting extraction of water to a capacity below what is actually available. Functional …show more content…

An effort is to be made to create mechanisms to involve all sections of the communities in the selection of technical options which are affordable and environmentally and operationally sustainable. For this purpose, the source sustainability analysis should be made part of the participatory appraisal at the community level. The focus would be on developing low cost technical choices, with particular emphasis on recharge and conservation of ground and surface water rather than on construction of schemes.
The option of storing water may be construction of dams (surface storage) or the recharge of groundwater (sub-surface storage). Both the surface and the sub-surface water storage methods has its own advantages and dis-advantages to be considered while opting for the water storage system to be implemented.
Integrated water resource management depends on co-operation and partnerships at all levels, from individual to governmental and non-governmental, national and international organisations showing a common political, scientific and ethical commitment to the need for water security and optimal water use policy.
Policy and Institutional

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