United Nations – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDGs 6), would increase access to energy and help address challenges of rapid urbanisation.
Ban stated this at the UN General Assembly’s Special Thematic Session on Water and Disasters in New York on Wednesday.
SDGs or Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, are an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.
Under it, world leaders agreed to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
He said that water “is the source of life, health and livelihood across the world.’’
The provision of safe drinking water, he added, was one of the basic responsibilities of national and local governments.
“Water drives the decisions of businesses and, in many places, determines the rhythm of daily life.
“Too little water at the time when it is needed most can mean drought and food insecurity.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“Too much water in the form of floods, storms or waves can devastate entire cities, rich or poor.
“Contaminated water, whether from human or industrial sources, is claiming the lives of children and affecting the health of communities worldwide with far-reaching consequences”, he said.
Ban said that floods, droughts and windstorms accounted for almost 90 per cent of the 1,000 most disastrous events since 1990.
These, he said had caused more than one trillion dollars in damages and affected more than four billion people.
The UN Chief said that Member States had put in place a set of goals and targets that encouraged cross-sectoral thinking in both the understanding of risks and approach to managing them.
“Solutions exist, we have the tools. Our challenge is to connect the dots and work in an integrated manner towards the goals we share.
“That is what the 2030 Agenda demands and it is what we can do’’, he added. (NAN)
