Essay Example on Essential Human Right: Access to Clean Water & Sanitation

Introduction

Water and sanitation are essential for human development and wellbeing. They are not only goals in their rights but also critical for the achievement of some other development objectives, such as eradicating poverty, gender inequality, adequate nutrition, and education. As such, access to safe water and sanitation is an essential human right under the 2010 United Nations General Assembly. Water and sanitation are essential spheres of human development and wellbeing.

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Due to the diminishing supply and the increasing demand for freshwater, there is a need to set various mechanisms to facilitate conservation and sustainable utilization of water. Again, the country is highly vulnerable to extreme weather effects, such as drought cycles and flooding. As a result of increased temperatures, water requirements and evaporation rates are expected to increase significantly with significant effects felt by the irrigation sector. Water Challenges in UAE

It is important to note that water demand in the UAE is about 4.2 billion cubic meters annually. Since it is a desert country, the UAE has a small supply of underground water; thus, it relies mostly on the desalination of seawater. A National Strategy for preserving water resources was adopted in 2010 by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment with a significant aim of adopting policies necessary for the rationalization of water use within the country. Most fundamentally, since the inception of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, the program has attracted various researchers around the world.

With the increasing population in the country, the UAE government has invested in upgrading and extending the sewage system to ensure sustainable disposal and treatment of sewage. In 2014, Abu Dhabi implemented some ambitious environmental plans for treating and re-using all the wastewater in the irrigation of the parks and farms.

The main achievements that have been realized by the UAE are the establishment of over 33 desalination plants for the provision of the required water. The country has also adopted various desalination as well as purification solutions such as the reverse osmosis for the seawater and the use of solar technology in water purification.

Clean water and sanitation - The Official Portal of the UAE Government

It is important to note that water scarcity in the UAE is expected to increase due to climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. The report indicates that rainfall is likely to reduce by 15-20% in the next 50 years. This is expected to result in a significant decline in the recharge of the groundwater as well as the productivity loss in the few rain fed areas.

Within the Asian continent, about 2.1 billion people have gained better sanitation facilities since the 1990s. Research indicates that about 2.4 billion people still lack the improved sanitation facilities. In the Northern, Emirates has established various sewage projects aimed at treating the water for irrigating the farms and the green spaces within the City of Sharjah.

Conclusion

Furthermore, the main challenge that influences water conservation in UAE is the changing behavior due to various campaigns and initiatives. Various campaigns within the UAE, such as 'Every drop matters,' have been initiated to rationalize water consumption within the country. There have been numerous government initiatives to increase awareness of environmental protection methods due to the increasing per capita water consumption within the state.

References

6. Clean water and sanitation - The Official Portal of the UAE Government. (2020). Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/leaving-no-one-behind/6cleanwaterandsanitation

Water Challenges in UAE - Fanack Water. Fanack Water. (2020). Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://water.fanack.com/uae/water-challenges/.

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/177752/9789241509145_eng.pdf;jsessionid=A2CA3234FC3DFFAA38D1D3F791F7A51A?sequence=1.