Today is World Water Day, a celebration that has been observed annually on March 22 since 1993.
The brainchild of the United Nations, the observance focuses on the importance of freshwater but on different themes every year.
This year’s theme is ‘Leveraging Water for Peace’.
This theme is apt because even though most people downplay the importance of water, it can be described as the most important resource after air for human survival.
Usually, when thinking of importance of freshwater, what readily comes to mind is drinking it as a physiological requirement, and its domestic uses before thinking of how it supports growth of crops, manufacturing and production of energy, particularly the hydro-source.
We stand to be corrected, but we dare say that there is no activity to advance human progress or development such as building and road construction, running of vehicles and healthcare that does not need water.
In the face of the need for water, people, households, workplaces, communities and a whole nation can lose their peace of mind and the ramifications are worrying.
Some households and communities can even fight over the ownership of a source of water and that fight can be a long-standing conflict.
In any country where getting water is a crisis, that can undermine its peace because its lack or absence cannot eradicate the need for its use.
This is the principal reason why we see the World Water Day 2024 theme ‘Leveraging Water for Peace’ as appropriate.
Even where there is water, it has to be safe for drinking and other uses because contaminated water can, for instance, cause illnesses in both humans and animals, and as well undermine the wholesomeness of food.
For this reason, the World Water Day is said to celebrate water and raise awareness about billions across the globe living without access to safe water.
If that is the case, then all countries suffering water crisis must plan actions to tackle the problem and must be supported by the privileged ones to do so.
That is to say that all nations must collaborate to solve global water crisis.
This is why we support the UN in saying that the core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
The SDG 6 is targeted to go beyond drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to also address the quality and sustainability of water resources, as they are considered critical to the survival of humanity and the planet.
In Ghana, the government has been reiterating its commitment to work with all key stakeholders and development partners, to ensure that Ghanaians have access to sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.
The government sees access to WASH services as imperative in improving the quality of lives of Ghanaians, most importantly their health.
As the world celebrates water day today, we wish to remind the government of that professed commitment and appeal that it should do all it can to fight all activities such as illegal mining and unbridled destruction of the country’s vegetation cover, which pollute and deplete water sources.
We need to pass the SDG 6 test and survive healthily beyond 2030!
