The World Bank’s Saroj Kumar Jha calls 2024 on the Water Blog “A year of progress for water security”:
“As we wrap up 2024, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the milestones we’ve achieved, and the transformative steps taken by the Global Department for Water. This year, we made great strides toward securing water for people, food, and the planet— a mission that lies at the heart of our work. Let’s revisit the top five highlights of 2024 and the achievements that shaped our efforts.”
“Looking Ahead”, the blog states:
“2024 was a defining year for water security. As we look to 2025 and beyond, we are even more committed to securing water for future generations. Water lies at the core of our collective prosperity and survival.”
Somehow I am not that excited about 2024 when it comes to water. I read the blog more as wishful thinking or as a blue-washing of the World Bank’s work. Many entries here on this website and in the Blue News would show a different and much darker picture.
At the same time as the article went live on the World Bank blog, this news also published on Phys.org: “Plumbing poverty: More people living without running water in US cities since global financial crisis”:
More American cities—even those seen as affluent—are home to people living without running water as people are being “squeezed” by unaffordable housing and the cost-of-living crisis, new research finds. Published in Nature Cities, the study revealed the problem worsened following changes to the housing market triggered by the 2008 global crash. And since 2017, it has been “expanding in scope and severity” to affect a broader array of US cities including Portland (OR), Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Philadelphia, as well as large urban areas such as Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco.
The research also found that people of color were disproportionally affected by a lack of household water, a situation defined by the authors as “plumbing poverty,” in 12 of the 15 largest cities.
The researchers from King’s College London and the University of Arizona said the findings should “raise alarm bells” and warned it would take a “heroic” transformation of housing conditions and social infrastructures for the U.S. to meet the United Nations goal for everyone to have access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
To me, that sounds a lot more sober than the World Bank’s blog. What do you think of Water and Sanitation 2024? I would love to hear your assessment and opinion! Send it by email here.
Best wishes for a better water year in 2025.
Roland Brunner, Admin BCnet