Valuing Water: India launches "Catch the Rain" campaign, The Republic of Women support the campaign
World Water Day: Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on Monday launched a 100-day ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign on World Water Day via video conferencing and pitched for leadership roles to women with regard to water management.
PHOTO: courtesy of the @gssjodhpur
Water Resources Minister (Jal Shakti Minister) Govt of India Shekhawat assigned elected president certification to Parvati Jangid on behalf of ROW, she wins Republic of Women Presidency (World's First Borderless Digital State) on #IWD2021
ROW/New Delhi: UN Water - 22 March, 2021
On World Water Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the 'Catch the Rain' campaign.
'Catch the Rain' campaign aims to ''conserve rainwater when it falls, where it falls so that water reaches every corner of the nation.'' PM Modi launched the campaign via video conferencing today. The 'Catch the Rain' campaign, focusing on water security, will go on from March 22 to November 30, covering the pre-monsoon and monsoon seaon in the country. It will also encourage ''water conservation at the grass-root level through people's participation.'' The United Nations designated World Water Day is being marked across the globe and the theme this year is ''Valuing Water''.
World Water Day and India
''Our small acts of water conservation can collectively have bigger impact, such as improving the lives of women working in fields. Save water for an equal world,'' it the ministry said on World Water Day.
Union Minister Government of India Shekhawat honored top 20 women including globally ranked 8th Seema Samridhi Kushwaha from India in the Republic of Women, Elected President Parvati was honored with the Presidency Winner Certificate with Beauty on Earth, Beauty with Brain and People's Choice Global Goal Awards
PHOTO: courtesy of the facebook.com/officialparvati
On the occasion of World Water Day, the program was organized in the Republic of Women's Council at the Delhi state residence of Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in honor of twenty women who performed brilliantly from India.
On the global stage, the best 20 women who have performed well in different regions of India put forward their views on women's respect, safety and measures and water conservation and on World Water Day, to unite for the water prosperity and water security of the country and the world.
Everyone said in a voice that for the tomorrow free of water anxiety, today, in the habit of proper use, storage and preservation of water should be included in the habit. Water conservation is life saving.
Parvati was honored with the official Presidency Winner Certificate and Beauty on Earth, Beauty with Brain and People's Choice Global Goal Awards by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Known as Bharat ki laxmi & Sister of Soldiers Parvati has raised the value of Hindustan across the world. Parvati Jangid, who is associated with social concerns and humanitarian work, was ranked first in the Beauty on Earth title as well as in The Republic of Women's Presidential Election.
About ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan:Catch the Rain’
The Campaign will be undertaken across the country, in both rural and urban areas, with the theme “catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls”. It will be implemented from 22nd March 2021 to 30th November, 2021 - the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country. It will be launched as a Jan Andolan to take water conservation at grass-root level through people’s participation. It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater.
After the event, Gram Sabhas will be held in all Gram Panchayats of each district (except in the poll bound states) to discuss issues related to water and water conservation. Gram Sabhas will also take ‘Jal Shapath’ for water conservation.
UN World Water Development Report 2021 ‘Valuing Water’
Launch of UN World Water Development Report 2021: determining the true value of the “blue gold” we need to protect.
The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2021, published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water, shows that the inability to recognize the value of water is the main cause of water waste and misuse. Despite the difficulty of attributing an objective and indisputable value to a resource which is fundamental to life, it seems necessary to examine water’s various dimensions in order to understand the various aspects of its “value”. This is especially true in times of growing scarcity and against the backdrop of population growth and climate change.
“Water is our most precious resource, a ‘blue gold’ to which more than 2 billion people do not have direct access. It is not only essential for survival, but also plays a sanitary, social and cultural role at the heart of human societies,” says the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
This year’s WWDR addresses the question of the value of water. It shows that waste and careless use stems from the fact we all too often think of water exclusively in terms of its cost price, without realizing its tremendous value, which is impossible to price.
“The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic remind us of the importance of having access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and highlight that far too many people are still without them. Many of our problems arise because we do not value water highly enough; all too often water is not valued at all,” says Gilbert F. Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The value of water is certainly incalculable and limitless, since life cannot exist without it and it has no replacement. This is perhaps best illustrated by the widespread enthusiasm for the idea that traces of water can be found on Mars, or the fact that we think of water and life as interchangeable when studying other planets.
The report emphasizes the great need to broaden the notion of the “value” of water stressing that we cannot confuse the concepts of “price”, “cost” and “value”.
Although price and cost are potentially quantifiable, the concept of “value” is much wider and includes social and cultural dimensions.
Indeed, water is not like other raw materials which can be treated as commodities and openly traded through stock markets. The challenge is to determine a value for a resource whose importance varies in different areas of economic activity, at different times, without forgetting to take into account its social, environmental and cultural dimensions.
Tools and methodologies for valuing water are both imperfect and misapplied
The tools we have today tend to reduce the value of water to its economic aspect.
The economic value of water cannot be denied considering its myriad uses in food, electricity and industrial production, to name just a few.
While monetary valuation has the advantage of convenience and easy legibility in agriculture and industry, it presents the disadvantage of underestimating, even excluding, other aspects which are more difficult to monetize. How do we quantify the meaning of the 443 million schooldays missed annually due to water-related diseases?
Furthermore, some societies reject the idea of viewing nature and its benefits from an economic perspective, putting the rights of “Mother Earth” to the fore, thus rendering such economic readings of the value of water woefully inadequate.
In India, for example, the Ganges is revered by Hindus as a living entity with the same rights as human beings. Similarly, in New Zealand, the Te Awa Tupua Act of 2017 recognizes the Whanganui River as “an indivisible and living whole from the mountains to the sea” and guarantees the river’s protection by the local Maori population. “The fate of humans and water is inextricably linked. In the words of the Whanganui River Tribe’s proverb, Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au, I am the river, the river is me”, notes Audrey Azoulay.
Faced with these views and those of investors, who consider that resources such as water can have an economic value put on them, it becomes difficult to develop a standard system to measure the value of water in all its aspects. Nevertheless, it is possible to develop an integrated approach that allows the different dimensions of water to be considered together, so as to identify appropriate policy choices. A key element of such an approach is to ensure that all stakeholders, regardless of background or gender, are involved in evaluations and decision-making. If we want to enrich our approach to water and stop reducing the resource to its mere monetary value, we must be enriched by the views held by all, especially the people directly concerned.
Overcoming differences of opinion and reaching the necessary compromises is one of the great challenges of water management. “The time has come for stakeholders to identify, articulate and share perspectives of the values of water,” emphasizes UN-Water Chair, Gilbert F. Houngbo. This implies developing mechanisms that allow stakeholders not only to express themselves but also to be heard.
When major infrastructure projects are studied, for example, it is essential to consider all these different dimensions, to ensure that their social, cultural and environmental consequences are not underestimated. A cost-benefit approach therefore requires considering the different “values” of water.
Similarly, we know that providing universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation in 140 low- and middle-income countries would cost $114 billion per year, whereas the multiple social and economic benefits of safe water are difficult to evaluate.
These issues are at the heart of this year’s edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR), UN-Water’s flagship publication on water and sanitation issues, which focuses on a different theme every year.
The report is published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water and its production is coordinate by the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme. The report gives insight into the main trends concerning the state, use and management of freshwater and sanitation, based on work by members and partners of UN-Water.
Launched in conjunction with World Water Day, the report provides decision-makers with knowledge and tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. It also offers best practice examples and in-depth analyses to stimulate ideas and actions for better stewardship in the water sector and beyond.