SICK WATER?

More Like Another Sick UNEP Whitewash

Having just downloaded the new ‘bells and whistle’ report by UNEP titled Sick Water? two of the moderators  were about to discuss the main points raised in the report, but were dismayed to find a headline that appeared on the Joint Statement page:

The statistics are stark: Globally, two million tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste is discharged into the world’s waterways and at least 1.8 million children under five years-old die every year from water related disease, or one every 20 seconds.

Signed by Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP AND  Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, UN-HABITAT

The problem?

The report says only ‘two million tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste are discharged in the world’s waterways’ [by the world’s 6.81 billion population with  a combined GDP of  $61 trillion.]

That’s less than 290 g per person, or just over 1 kg per family of four, per year!

We know that two million tons of sewage, and industrial waste are released DAILY into Hong Kong’s Victoria harbor alone!

[Note: Hong Kong Population is just over 1 percent of the world population, and there are 365 days in a year!]

Here’s another statistic:

An estimated one billion (one thousand million) metric tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste are dumped into India’s Ganges River every day of the year!

How could any other figure provided by the report be reliable?

Do the UNEP staff really know what they are talking about, or is it just another one of those amazing UN whitewashes?

For our initial assessment of the report see photo below:

Photo of sewage/industrial waste  dumped in a waterway. Source: UNEP Report Sick Water?

UNEP must clarify why they made such a huge error, otherwise their report is not worth the billions of tons of sewage and waste that are being dumped in the world’s waterways each and every day of the year.

Related Links:

• UNEP Issues Some CO2 Reduction Snakeoil!
• British Govt Makes Another Straw Man