World Water Day 2011 – Water for cities

In urban cities 3.3 billion human beings are living with the growth rate of 38% which is much faster than expected. The United Nations (UN) sponsor’s World Water Day once a year and the main objective is to draw human beings attention about growing problem of fresh water shortage. This year’s theme is “Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge“.

The dilemma is that small percentages of people are aware of the problem that fresh water is not only consumed for drinking but also used for irrigation and industry. Since last decade fresh water which was an old problem in rural areas, is becoming a huge issue in urban areas as well. On March 22, 2011, UN will hold seminars and meeting in different countries to raise awareness and encourage people to (ref: 2011 advocacy guide),

Raise the profile of urban water challenge and generate commitment to tackle this crucial issue.
Facilitate policy dialogue and implementation partnerships for lasting water service improvements.
Promote innovative solutions to provide safe water and sanitation to growing informal settlements.

In order to resolve water shortage issues, UN also provides various solutions. Like, providing water and sanitation services in the growing area in informal settlements. Local government and water distribution authorities should ensure water supply in all parts of city including informal settlements. Waste management should be handled properly and encourage recycling as both break and increase issues in water cycling process. We think of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) as United States government supported organization responsible for aviation and spaceflights. But, you might be surprised that NASA is helping UN by scientifically studying world water cycle. It looks at fine details of natural water cycle that includes measuring changes in snowpack and groundwater level, soil moisture in farms and amount of water consumed by vegetation. According to NASA’s scientist Bradley Doorn, program manager for agriculture carbon, and water applications in Applied Science Program of NASA’s Earth science division, we play a key role in trying to understand the supply and demand issues of water. For some people it may seem an easy job that we are just monitoring water cycle through satellites and processing images but there are lots of unknowns which makes it difficult.