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In Pictures

Gallery|Water

Photos: World’s water in focus after year of droughts and floods

Climate change, pollution and waste have compounded water concerns by squeezing the Earth’s resources.

A woman balances a water can on her head while carrying a child as people collect water from a mobile water tanker on World Water Day in a residential area in New Delhi, India
A woman balances a water can on her head while carrying a child as people collect water from a mobile water tanker on World Water Day in a residential area in New Delhi, India. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Published On 23 Mar 202323 Mar 2023
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Water is the lifeblood of every community around the world. But a sustainable, clean supply for drinking, hygiene and farming is not guaranteed for hundreds of millions of people, according to United Nations figures.

From droughts stifling once-reliant sources to destructive downpours and floods, what the world does about its water woes is the central question at the UN’s three-day water conference that began on Wednesday. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Water Day, it is the first dedicated UN conference on water in nearly 50 years.

Climate change, pollution and waste have compounded water concerns by squeezing the Earth’s resources. Some supplies have dwindled from lack of rain, with dry spells often lasting months if not years in some places. Others have had essential supplies contaminated by chemicals or toxins from human activity.

A punishing winter drought in Southern Europe left reservoirs so bare that officials are moving fish for their survival. Kenya’s dry weather and lack of infrastructure mean many people gather water at local hubs to collect enough. Peru’s workers must treat water contaminated by waste from abandoned mines, bacteria and rubbish. Washers rely on India’s Brahmaputra River for cleaning clothes despite threats from seasonal flooding.

Some countries exposed to too much or too little water have already found ways to keep it flowing in the needed amounts. In the Netherlands, where about a third of the country is below sea level, wind pumps prevent regions from being submerged.

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A report launched on the eve of the UN conference on water in more than 45 years says 26 percent of the world’s population does not have access to safe drinking water and 46 percent lacks access to basic sanitation.

Delegates attending the conference in New York will agree on an agenda on Friday aimed at advancing towards a goal of having readily available, sustainably managed water and sanitation for everyone across the globe.

The cracked earth of the Sau reservoir is visible north of Barcelona, Spain
The cracked earth of the Sau reservoir is visible north of Barcelona, Spain. [Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo]
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A woman paddles through water surrounded by garbage in a floating slum of Makoko, in Lagos, Nigeria
A woman paddles through water amid rubbish in a floating slum of Makoko, in Lagos, Nigeria. [Sunday Alamba/AP Photo]
People, without running water at home, collect water from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
People, without running water at home, collect water from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo]
Franklin Caceres checks a water pump used to collect water from a well in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela,
Franklin Caceres checks a water pump used to collect water from a well in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela. Caceres supplies water to more than 400 people in the upper sector of Petare. [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]
A girl takes a bath near a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines
A girl takes a bath near a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines. [Aaron Favila/AP Photo]
People get drinking water from a water collecting point at a slum area, in Karachi, Pakistan
People get drinking water from a water collecting point at a slum area in Karachi, Pakistan. [Fareed Khan/AP Photo]
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A woman walks on a bridge over the Rimac River, in Lima, Peru
A woman walks on a bridge over the Rimac River, in Lima, Peru. [Martin Mejia/AP Photo]
People bathe and do their laundry in a spring inside a cave due to no running water at their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
People bathe and do their laundry in a spring inside a cave with no running water at their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo]
A woman washes utensils outside her house in a slum area on the eve of World Water Day in Mumbai, India
A woman washes utensils outside her house in a slum area on the eve of World Water Day in Mumbai, India. [Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo]
Locals wait for their turn to fill their water containers from water collected in an abandoned highway tunnel at the Cotiza neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela
Locals wait for their turn to fill their containers with water in an abandoned highway tunnel in the Cotiza neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela. [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]
The wind pumps of Kinderdijk work in Kinderdijk, Netherlands
The wind pumps of Kinderdijk, Netherlands. About a third of the country is below sea level and wind pumps prevent regions from being flooded. [Michael Probst/AP Photos]
Carmelo Del Valle, who was displaced from his home by the rising waters of the Paraguay River, hauls buckets of water to his temporary shelter, in Asuncion, Paraguay
Carmelo Del Valle, who was displaced from his home by the rising waters of the Paraguay River, hauls buckets of water to his temporary shelter, in Asuncion, Paraguay. [Jorge Saenz/AP Photo]
A woman uses a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines
A woman uses a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines. [Aaron Favila/AP Photo]
A youth without running water at home balances a bucket of water collected from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
A youth without running water at home balances a bucket of water collected from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo]


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