Encouraging global action to support clean water and sanitation, United Nations General Assembly President Peter Thomson today underscored that when it comes to the environment, everything is connected.
¡°None should imagine that the state of sanitation and coral reefs are anything but directly connected,¡± Mr. Thomson said, delivering the?keynote address?at special event in Stockholm to start World Water Week. ¡°It makes no sense to consider terrestrial environmental issues, fresh water challenges or climate change in isolation.¡±
He urged the international community to take an ¡°inclusive, integrated approach,¡± and put to use all skills, idea and energies.
Water and sanitation are among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals () which were adopted by the 193 Members of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ in September 2015, and which are guiding the work of the development efforts of the international community through 2030.
Combined with the??on lowering the impact of climate change, the?represent ¡°the best chance our species has to achieve a sustainable way of life on Planet Earth before it is too late,¡± Mr. Thomson said.
He commended??for bringing together more than 3,000 participants from nearly the entire world. The 2017 edition of the week will address the theme ‘Water and waste: reduce and reuse.¡±
Experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries come to Stockholm to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today.
In his address, Mr. Thomson noted?, which, held in New York in June, was meant to raise attention and start working on stopping marine pollution ¨C mainly plastics ¨C ocean acidification, ocean warming, overfishing, damage to biodiversity and ecosystems, and strengthen governance on these issues.
The Conference resulted in a political declaration, partnerships dialogues and nearly 1,400 voluntary commitments to help overcome these issues.
¡°North and south east and west, the ocean unites us and we have to bring humanity back into a relationship of balance and respect with the water: that great reservoir of H20 which is of course shared by clouds into the rivers and lakes that give us the fresh water that we drink,¡± Mr. Thomson said.
He said The Ocean Conference gave a boost to a global movement to deliver on SDG14, or the so called Ocean Goal, and similarly, it is time to push for world action on SDG 6, related to water and sanitation.
¡°, the water and sanitation Goal, is in need of a major push. The time is right, thus I encourage you all to join together to develop concerted global action to deliver on the targets of [that Goal],¡± Mr. Thomson said.