World Water Week 2021: Meet our expert

1. Why is the theme of this year’s World Water Week “Building Resilience Faster”

The United Nations warns that water scarcity and drought will cause damage on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic due to global warming. In order to seek concrete solutions to challenges related to water, the climate crisis, food security, health, biodiversity and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, World Water Week 2021, which takes place from August 23 to 27, have the theme “Building Resilience Faster”.

World water week is a good opportunity for us to recognize climate change crisis as the single biggest threat to the world and Viet Nam. Viet Nam is one of the highly vulnerable countries to climate-induced disasters and extreme weather events, which are disproportionately burdening vulnerable groups, especially women and children. Water-related climate impacts intersect with other socio-economic trends that impact water quality and quantity, including industrialization, population growth and rapid urbanization.

In the context of COVID-19, World Water Week 2021 will be held entirely online, ensure that many people can participate, collaborate in discussions and come up with related solutions.”

“Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic and there is no vaccine to cure it,” Mami Mizutori, the U.N.’s special representative for disaster risk reduction.

2. From the UNICEF studies in Viet Nam, what is the current situation of water supply in Viet Nam?

Clean water, sanitation and personal hygiene are core elements of human resource development that drive Viet Nam’s current and future productivity and growth. In recent years, Vietnamese government has put a lot of efforts to implement the water supply and sanitation programs with remarkable results.

Following joint monitoring program WHO/UNICEF 2020 report, Viet Nam is likely on track to achieve universal basic water and sanitation services by 2030 with an increase at the annual rate of 0.8% and 1.9%, respectively.  In 2020, there were 90% of the population with improved water on their premises and 89% with improved sanitation facilities.

However, there is a gap between urban, rural areas and among regions. Nearly 2.5 million people in the rural areas cannot access basic water, and 10 million people still cannot access basic sanitation facilities, among which the majority live in rural areas. Furthermore, COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need to ensure everyone can access good hand hygiene while almost 13.6 million people do not have handwashing facility with soap and water at home.