World Water Day

Water is a universal right of every human being and so availability of safe drinking water for everyone is essential. Water is the building blocks of life and not only to quench thirst but to also develop jobs and resources and to avail them as well.
This year the theme is ‘Leaving no one behind’. It works towards having sustainable development and everyone to benefit from it. Today, billions of people are still living without safe water, which means ‘safely managed drinking water service’: water that is accessible on the premises, available when needed, and free from contamination. Their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive.

Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need.

http://www.un.org/en/events/waterday/

An act of reconciliation

Drinking water advisories have been a persistent injustice in First Nations throughout Canada. Currently, more than 100 communities go without clean drinking water. Many have faced these conditions for years, or even decades.

After years of pressure from Indigenous and social justice organizations, the federal government committed to ending all long‐term drinking water advisories by 2021. In response, the David Suzuki Foundation has begun monitoring progress on resolving First Nations drinking water advisories. Our first report released in February 2017 in partnership with the Council of Canadians concluded that although work to end DWAs had begun, the federal government was not on track to fulfil its commitment. Assessments from this year’s report are similar. https://davidsuzuki.org/project/drinking-water-advisories/