Africa-Press – Lesotho. On the occasion of World Water Day 2022 (whose theme is ‘Groundwater, making the invisible visible’), I thought it is an opportunity to reflect on some important issues that are related to water.
For those of us in the developing and developed world, which includes our own country, we take it for granted that whenever we open our taps, clean potable water will flow out, barring exceptional circumstances.
Nearly 2.2 billion people in the world – almost a third of the world’s population – do not have an adequate supply of water. Pic – The Hans India That water is essential to life is a common experience to all of us, in fact to all living beings.
As far as human beings are concerned, this idea is captured wonderfully in a line by British poet, W. H. Auden: ‘Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
Thus, although the definitive origin of life is not yet a settled question for scientists, they are more or less agreed that it arose in water, and that indeed there can be no sentient life without water.
Water is so important to our existence, forming as it does about 70% of the human body, that it would not be an exaggeration to say that ‘Water is Life’.
This fundamental reality is recognized by the WHO in the eight essential components of primary health care, which are set out in the Alma-Ata Declaration and include ‘Supply of adequate safe water and sanitation.
’ In a normally functioning country, this is a state responsibility.
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