Untreated sewage threatens seas, coastal population. (Risks).The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP UNEP United Nations Environment Program(me) UNEP Unbundled Network Element Platform UNEP University of Northeastern Philippines ) called for Governments to back wastewater emission targets as a key step towards cleaning up the world's seas and reducing the number of people at risk of disease because of lack of access to basic sanitation services. One way of dealing with the problem is to "set realistic but ambitious wastewater emission targets", UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said, stressing that they should be "linked to a timetable when the targets should be met". Doing this, he added, would "allow us to tackle this scourge once and for all, so that current and future generations can have access to safe healthy, drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. and enjoy coastal areas free from contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. bathing waters and polluted natural resources". According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a UNEP report published on 3 October 2002, almost 40 per cent of world population lives in coastal areas less than 60 kilometres from the shore, most of which are being threatened by untreated sewage discharges. The report was compiled in response to a target agreed upon Adj. 1. agreed upon - constituted or contracted by stipulation or agreement; "stipulatory obligations" stipulatory noncontroversial, uncontroversial - not likely to arouse controversy at the World Summit on Sustainable Development Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. The linkage between environment and development was globally recognized in 1980, when the International Union , held in Johannesburg, South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. , to halve by the year 2015 the number of people without access to basic sanitation services. The most vulnerable populations are in the South Asian seas region, where 800 million people live without access to basic sanitation services, putting them at high risk of sewage-related disease and death. The next most at risk region is East Asia, where 515 million people or some 25 per cent of the world's "unserved population" live. The report also noted that rising populations are overwhelming whatever improvements are made to the sanitation systems of the developing world. In the South Asian seas region, for instance, between 1990 and 2000, 220 million people benefited from improved access to sanitation. But during the decade the population grew by 222 million, offsetting that advantage and leaving 825 million still without access to acceptable sanitation. [GRAPH OMITTED] |
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