This year World Day for Water focuses on water for development. Worldwide,
some 2.4 billion people still lack access to basic sanitation and 1.2 billion,
or one in five, lack safe drinking water. In Europe alone, 120 million people,
i.e. one in seven of the population, do not have access to safe drinking water
and adequate sanitation. At the same time precious water continues to be wasted
and polluted.
World Day for Water this year also coincides with the 10th anniversary of
two environmental conventions of the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE) intended, directly or indirectly, to conserve and protect our
water resources: the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary
Watercourses and International Lakes and the Convention on the Transboundary
Effects of Industrial Accidents. As he takes stock, Mr Kaj Bärlund, UNECE
Environment Director, says 'people, industry and agriculture are all competing
for the same scarce resource. Unfortunately, leaking pipes, cuts in water
supply, contaminated drinking water and water-borne disease are still common,
even in the so-called developed world. This represents a huge waste. In the
UNECE region as a whole, the direct cost in terms of clean water that is unaccounted
for, because it is lost during distribution for instance, has been estimated
at some $10 billion a year.'
One particular concern is the discharge of persistent organic pollutants,
such as aldrin, dieldrin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). High concentrations of these substances have
long been associated with a number of carcinogenic and other health effects.
But much more subtle effects can also occur at environmental concentrations
which may be the result of waste-water discharges or runoff from agriculture.
Industrial accidents can also threaten water supplies and devastate aquatic
life, as was illustrated by the accident at Baia Mare in northern Romania
in January 2000, when the Aurul mining company accidentally spilled over 100,000
cubic metres of cyanide-polluted water, which entered the Tisza, one of Hungary's
largest rivers. Several countries are still counting the cost of the devastation,
as the spill affected not only Hungary's environment, but also that of the
Danube's other downstream countries.
The polluter must pay
To make sure that polluters pay for the havoc they wreak, the UNECE is working
out a civil liability regime to industrial accidents that cause transboundary
water pollution. It will fill one of the big gaps in international environmental
legislation and have the potential to prevent accidents from happening in
the first place. It should be ready for adoption by Environment Ministers
at their next conference in Kiev in May 2003.
Finally, the UNECE will continue to organize response exercises to mitigate
the transboundary effects of industrial accidents. This year, it is simulating
an industrial accident on the border between Poland and the Russian Federation
(Kaliningrad region) to improve the preparedness on both sides of the border,
and protect the health and the environment of local people.
For further information, please contact:
Rainer ENDERLEIN
UNECE Environment Division
Palais des Nations, Office 313
CH - 1211 Geneva 10
Phone: +41(0)22 917 23 73
Fax: +41(0)22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Sergiusz LUDWICZAK
UNECE Environment Division
Palais des Nations, Office 409
CH - 1211 Geneva 10
Phone: +41(0)22 917 31 74
Fax: +41(0)22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref. ECE/ENV/02/01