March 22 marks World Water Day, the United Nations General Assembly designated initiative observed since 1993. The event is held to urge the provision of clean water for all.
This year is the UN's Year of Sanitation, a coincidence that challenges the world "to spur action on a crisis affecting more than one out of three people on the planet," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message for World Water Day notes.
"The United Nations officially launched the International Year of Sanitation to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people worldwide who are without proper sanitation facilities," Ki-moon said. "Every dollar invested in water and sanitation yields an estimated seven dollars worth of productive activity. And that comes on top of the immeasurable gains in cutting poverty, improving health and raising living standards," the secretary-general concluded.
Events to mark World Water Day are being held across the world, from Sierra Leone to Nepal, from Haiti to Guyana. Cambodia's contribution is the Rubbish Project, a giant plastic Naga (mythical serpent) installed in Siem Reap River. It is hoped the art installation will bring attention to Cambodia's burgeoning plastic waste problem and its effects on the Kingdom's rivers.
Sam Campbell is a reporter at The Mekong Times
This article first appeared in The Mekong Times
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