Miranda Johnson
Melrose-Mindoro High School
Ireland
Third Main Committee: Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural
Subcommittee: Clean Drinking Water
Position Paper Title: Irelands View on Clean Drinking Water
Clean Drinking Water;
26,895 Boston Marathon runners run down streets for miles and miles. Whenever
the runner gets tired they run to a side spot and chug a glass of clean water. However, 900
million people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water. The UN needs to
address this issue to help countries get access to clean drinking water and better
sanitation.
Dealing with water issues is nothing new for Ireland. In 2007 the Irish EPA had to
regulate our water. We had failed to meet the levels of E. coli and had high levels of nitrate.
E. coli was the most common water contamination. Overall, sanitation and accessibility
issues regarding water within my border are a high E. coli level in water but it is going
down. We fixed our problem by having water suppliers adapt to the recommendations
made by the World Health Organization. Also, local authorities with chemicals that could be
toxic had to manage the risks by either getting rid of the source, upgrading the treatment
facility or improving operational and maintenance arrangement. The population has easy
access to clean water because of our maritime climate. We have a wet climate, however
clean water is becoming scarce. There is also no political, geographical, or environmental
issues affecting my population’s accessibility to water even though our water is becoming
scarce. Our water is still not 100 percent, but by following recommendations made by the
World Health Organization and investing money our water has improved significantly.
The UN is trying to fix the water problem globally by creating the UN-Water
program. The UN-Water branch made a program called the International Decade for Life,
Water for Life 2005-2015. The programs facility is located in Zaragoza, Spain, and led by
the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The purpose of
this program is to fix water for people around the world. On July 28, 2010 the General
Assembly declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right. However,
according to the UN World Water Development Report, by 2050, at least one in four people
are likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of freshwater. The
problem of clean drinking water and poor sanitation isn’t going to go away overnight. It is
going to take time, effort by the UN and money.
There is still continued work that needs to be done to make safe drinking water
possible to the world. Ireland recommends the UN follow the World Health Organization
recommendations to clean drinking water. These recommendations are enforce drinking
water safety with minimum procedures, eliminate microbial hazards chemical
contaminants in drinking-water which would also include information on chemicals not
considered previously such as pesticides used for disease vector control in stored drinking
water. Other recommendations made by the World Health Organization are to eliminate
key chemicals responsible for large-scale health effects through drinking-water exposure;
including arsenic, fluoride, lead, and chemicals of public concern such as nitrate, selenium,
uranium and disinfection-by-products, and test water for chemical contaminants. A final
recommendation made by the World Health Organization, is to recognize the importance of
managing impacts of climate change within a country.
Works Cited
Kuepper, T.A. "Water Shortage, Drinking Water Crisis Solutions." Water Shortage, Drinking
Water Crisis Solutions. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.globalwater.org/homewelcome.html>.
Page, Darragh, Dermot Burke, Brenden Wall, and Gerard O'Leary. The Provision and Quality of
Drinking Water In Ireland. Rep. Print.
"UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication: Homepage." UN News
Center. UN. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/unwdpac.shtml>.
"Water In Ireland." Home. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.askaboutireland.ie/readingroom/environment-geography/environmental-information/water/water-in-ireland/>.