March 21st, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

Since the early ’90s, March 22 of every year has been World Water Day in the eyes of the United Nations.

The approach has evolved over the years, with an “International Decade for Action” declared for 2005-2015. Each year within that time frame takes a different focus: 2007 highlighted water scarcity in different parts of the world. This year is the “International Year of Sanitation.”  A website devoted to that theme

gathers a variety of informational resources — pointing out, among other things, that “2.6 billion people world-wide . . . are without proper sanitation facilities” and “every year inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene contribute to the deaths of 1.5 million children.”In the United States, environmentalists have been encouraged to participate in awareness-raising events like Thursday’s staged toilet line in New York City’s Central Park, where the public is being invited to create the “longest toilet line”; while standing in line isn’t the most active thing, it gave organizers a chance to explain facets of the sanitation issue that might not occur to Americans with out easy access to modern plumbing. In other parts of the globe, for instance, having no indoor toilet isn’t just an indignity and a disease risk — for women and girls, it’s a daily moment of vulnerability to violence.

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