 Water for Life |
Issue 101 |
Water for Life: Putting Promises into Practice
"No single measure would do more to reduce disease and save lives in the developing world than bringing safe water and adequate sanitation to all.” - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in The Millennium Report
Many of the facts and figures surrounding fresh water are astounding:
- Some 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene - equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.
- Unsafe water and sanitation cause an estimated 80 per cent of all diseases in the majority world.
- Women and girls tend to suffer the most as a result of the lack of sanitation facilities.
- One flush of a Western toilet uses as much water as the average person in the majority world uses for a whole day's washing, drinking, cleaning and cooking.
- Diarrhoeal diseases have killed more children in the past ten years than all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II
Source: United Nations International Year of Fresh Water, www.un.org/events/water/brochure.htm
Looking at Kofi Annan's comment and these figures it is easy to see why the global community has made providing safe water and sanitation a priority in the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals are 8 specific global goals that world leaders agreed to in the year 2000 at the Millennium Summit. Each goal has specific targets. The goals are concerned with freeing all men, women and children in our world from the conditions that tie them to extreme poverty. One of the goals is to Ensure Environmental Sustainability; it is under this goal that the target to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 is found. To help encourage the global community to meet this target the United Nations has decided to make providing fresh water a focus for the decade 2005 to 2015. The International Decade for Action,"Water for Life” will begin on World Water Day, 22 March 2005.
Writing and signing the Millennium Development Goals is easy, fulfilling them is proving to be much more difficult. It is essential that governments and organisations stay faithful to the goals and targets that were set. At present the promises are not all being kept by many of the global signatories including Australia.
However, one organisation that is working to provide safe water and sanitation to people is Caritas Australia. Caritas is putting the target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 into practice in many of its development initiatives. One such initiative is found in the village of Nefomtasa in the region of Oecussi in East Timor.
Anderita is an 8 year old girl who lives in Nefomata. Anderita's life has improved markedly through the work of Caritas in her village. In particular Caritas helped to build a fresh water well. The well has enabled the villages to have fresh water to drink and also to grow fresh fruit and vegetables. Both of these things have allowed the people of Anderita's village to live healthier which in turn allows them to better combat disease. The building of a well in the village of Nefomata has been one of many development programmes in the area that assists the people to free themselves from poverty.
The full story of Anderita and the Caritas programmes in her area can be found at: www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/story_5.htm. The activities that follow will help you understand and discover more about Anderita, East Timor and the power fresh water has in eradicating poverty.
To download an A4 size poster of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) visit: www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/
Advocacy_MDG%20Poster.pdf
For further information and activities about the MDGs visit: www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/advocacy_mdg.htm
March 8 is International Women's Day. International Women's Day is celebrated all around the world. It is commemorated at the United Nations and in many countries it is designated as a national holiday.
International Women's Day acknowledges the economic, political and social achievements of women.
To read some Caritas stories about inspiring women and to view a powerpoint presentation celebrating women, visit:
www.caritas.org.au/education/IWD.htm
The Australian Human Rights Register, documenting developments and violations of human rights in Australia in light of human rights conventions ratified by Australia is now available from the Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace, Melbourne. For a copy of the report visit:
www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/ccjdp/pdf/HumanRightsRegister2004e.pdf
Activities Across the Curriculum
1) Anderita's story is the 5 th story in the Project Compassion series. Her full story is found at:
www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_Project%20
Compassion%202005_new_Secondary_
Timor_Story.pdf.
Read the story and complete the worksheet (scroll down to page 2) that accompanies the story. The worksheet has a variety of questions and activities related to Anderita and East Timor.
2) One of The United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. Go to the following site and scroll down to the paragraph 'What needs to be done' and read the information.
www.un.org/events/water/brochure.htm
- List the 4 specific actions that have been recommended by the United Nations.
- What 2 extra goals were added at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit?
- Think of specific ways in which your family and your school can assist in meeting the Millennium Development Goal 7 and the goals set at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit.
3) Click on the following Caritas Project Compassion site and scroll down to worksheets 2 and 3 which relate specifically to Millennium Development Goals. Worksheets cover outcomes in Maths and HSIE/SOSE.
www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_Project%20
Compassion%202005_Schools_WorkSheets_Web.pdf
4) Evaluation is an important tool to help Caritas improve resources and materials for your use. Go to the following site and complete the evaluation form and return to Caritas.
5) The Water Matters Campaign Postcard is a lobbying tool that calls on our Prime Minister, John Howard, to raise our spending on water and sanitation in line with our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. To send a postcard click on:www.watermattersaustralia.org/postcard/index.htm
HSIE/SOSE
1. Go to the following site and examine the 3 maps and answer the following questions:
www.un.org/events/water/images/
WaterYearGraph.jpg
- For each map: 1950, 1995 and 2025 make 3 observations about water availability in that year.
- In 1950 did any region of the world have catastrophically low levels of fresh water?
- Using an atlas find out the countries that have catastrophically low levels of fresh water in 1995 and 2025.
- What are 3 changes that occurred between 1950 and 1995?
- What are 3 changes that are predicted to occur between 1995 and 2025?
English
Anderita's story is found at:
www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/story_5.htm
Read the story and complete the following questions:
- What is the name of Anderita's village?
- Describe where the region of Oecussi is.
- List 3 different ways Caritas has helped the people in Anderita's village.
- The villages nominated the building of a well as their priority. Can you think of 3 reasons for this?
- In what way is your own life similar and different to Anderita's?
- Write a creative writing piece set in Anderita's village about the importance of the well.
Art
The following is a site that provides photographs from across the world about water.
www.wateryear2003.org/en/ev.php
URL_ID=6166&URL_DO=DO_
TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Using these photographs create a collage about water with the title: 'Water: A Basic Human Need'. Include pictures as well as facts and figures. To find facts and figures about water go to the following site:
www.wateryear2003.org/en/ev.php
URL_ID=1600&URL_DO=DO_
TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
1) The United Nations has predicted that if present consumption patterns continue, two out of every three persons on Earth will live in water-stressed conditions, enduring moderate or severe water shortages by the year 2025. What strategies can Australia put in place to try and change this outcome?
2) Go to the following site and read the article 'Keeping Our Promises: 2005 and Beyond': www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/
HilaryBenn%2016-02-05.pdf
- Discuss why you think the 189 countries who signed the Millennium Development Goals are failing so badly at keeping them.
- What are some of the suggestions made by Mr Hilary Benn? Do you think they are realistic? Why/Why not?
3) Visit www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/advocacy_mdg.htm
Scroll down to the Caritas Australia statement and the Caritas Internationalis statements on the MDGs.
4) Write a letter to your local MP encouraging them to keep the promises that were made on your behalf at the Millennium Summit. For a list of Federal politicians contacts go to:
www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm
5) The Human Rights Register, facilitated by the Catholic Commission for Justice, Development & Peace, Melbourne, is an annual Non Government Organisation audit of Human rights developments. The Register records individual reports and accounts of developments and violations and analyses them in the light of the human rights conventions that Australia has ratified. It focuses on individual instances within Australia and contains reports from community legal centres, non-government organisations and the national media. The 2004 report was launched last week in Melbourne. It can be downloaded at:
www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/ccjdp/pdf/
HumanRightsRegister2004e.pdf
Fore more information about Australia's human Rights Register visit:
www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/ccjdp/
humanrightsregister.htm
6) March 8 is International Women's day. To read some Caritas stories about inspiring women and to view a powerpoint presentation celebrating women, visit: www.caritas.org.au/education/IWD.htm
Other Useful Links
www.unmillenniumproject.org provides all related information on the Millennium Development Goal's research initiative.
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.shtml provides general information on Millennium Development Goals activities.
www.unesco.org/water/ihp/women_and_water.shtml provides information on the relationship between women, water and development.
www.ozspirit.info/archives.html#wat is the archive for Ozspirit. Scroll down for other related articles on Millennium Development Goals, Water and East Timor.