Partnerships
LEGAMBIENTE
Legambiente (League for the Environment) is the most widespread environmental organization in Italy, with 20 Regional branches and more than 115,000 members. It is acknowledged as “association of environmental interest” by the Ministry of the Environment; it represents the UNEP National Committee for Italy, it is one of the leading member of EEB (“European Environmental Bureau”) the Federation of European environmental organization, and of IUCN - the World Conservation Union.
1980 – 2010: 30 years lived ecologically
For 30 years, the activity of Legambiente has been directed towards the stop to nuclear power, the killing of eco-monsters, fight killer smog and factories, the emergence of the green economy and alternative energy, defense of traditional agriculture, sustainable mobility, the relationship between the school and the area .
The water crisis
The climate change has resulted in a partial alteration of the natural water cycle - the exchange without break between atmosphere, soil, surface water, deep water and living things - making it more intense due to higher rates of evaporation and precipitation recorded since the last century. Growing population pressure, changes in consumption patterns, pollution, increased energy demand are the main accelerators of the crisis of water resources: already one billion and 200 million people have no access to drinking water and two billion people have no sanitation. Water is becoming an increasingly scarce and precious resource, and increasingly at the center of tensions and conflicts.
Legambiente proposal on the „Right to water”
The international community must take the commitment to a sustainable and equitable management of water resources. The United Nations must recognize access to water as a fundamental and inalienable right, individually and collectively.
It is necessary to:
- adopt a global policy of safeguarding water as a central element of development and priority in the fight against poverty;
- provide a service accessible to all in compliance with the principle of the „3 E”: efficiency, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness;
- find innovative ways to make the local communities protagonists in the management of water services and for monitoring the implementation of a transparent and fair exercise;
- take decisions that are not general but specific and diversified according to local requirements, in order to avoid mismanagement, or the prevalence of the logic of profit at the expense of quality of service and resource (water loss, lack of investment);
Right to water in numbers
- 1 billion people do not have enough drinking water in the world
- 2 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation
- 1.8 billion people in 2025 will be living in regions with absolute water shortage
- 30,000 people die every day from diseases caused by lack of clean water
- 60% of the amount of available water resources in South Africa consumed for irrigation by 600 thousand white farmers
- 15 million people in South Africa do not have access to safe drinking water.
More information on Legambiente: www.legambiente.it