World Water Day observed in Nepal
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E-mail Xinhua, March 23, 2012
World Water Day has been observed in Nepal with the slogan Water and Food Security on Thursday by organizing various programs.
To commemorate "World Water Day", Nepal National Water Week had been organized on March 17-22 which aimed to increase awareness about the importance of fresh water and raise public awareness for sustainable management of water sources of fresh water.
International World Water Day is held annually on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
The main objective of the World Water Day is to draw the attention of all in national and international level about the impacts of climate change and pollution in water resources and food security.
The water week being held in Nepal focused on various issues, problems related to water, sanitation and as a part of it also cleaned the also focuses "advocacy, awareness, research, publication and capacity building.
Also the organizers took up "Bagmati river cleaning campaign" where about 100 tons of garbage has been collected from the river.
Organizers say that Water Week which concluded on Thursday also focused on bringing together various organizations who are working in the sector of water and climate change.
A national level symposium on Water and Food Security was also organized in the capital to mark the World Water Day.
Various papers were presented during the session which highlighted the immediate need of safe drinking water, water resource management, water security and also the food security.
Speaking at the program, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Irrigation Mahendra Bahadur Gurung highlighted the importance of safe water and food security.
Presenting his paper on Safe Drinking water, Mukesh Dhungana a professor said that everyone has the right to drinking safe water.
He said more than 1.1 billion individuals lack access to basic supply of the clean drinking water in Nepal.
A survey conducted in 2010 by Environment and Public Health Organization in 40 rural districts and 28 municipalities in Nepal says in urban areas 70.9 percent of the source water has faecal contamination.
Likewise, 67.1 percent reservoir and 65.5 percent tap water are also contaminated.
Similarly, in the rural areas, 72.3 percent source water, 92.2 reservoirs, 93.7 tap and 97.1 percent household water are contaminated.
Many children in Nepal and the world die due to water borne disease, especially diarrhea.
About 2.2 million deaths mostly among the children under the age of five are due to diarrhea in the world in which 15 percent of the deaths of children under five are in the developing countries.
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