[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 466 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 466

          Supporting the goals and ideals of World Water Day.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 23, 2010

    Mr. Kerry (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Dodd, Mr. 
  Feingold, Mrs. Gillibrand, and Mr. Cardin) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
          Supporting the goals and ideals of World Water Day.

Whereas United Nations Resolution 47/193, adopted by the General Assembly on 
        December 22, 1992, designates March 22 of each year as World Day for 
        Water;
Whereas a person needs a minimum of 20 liters of water per day to live;
Whereas a person can live weeks without food, but only days without water;
Whereas diseases related to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene trigger 
        4,000,000,000 cases of diarrhea and 2,000,000,000 infections by 
        parasitic intestinal worms annually;
Whereas 50 percent of childhood malnutrition in the world is caused by water- 
        and sanitation-related diseases;
Whereas a child dies from a water-borne disease every 15 seconds;
Whereas water- and sanitation-related diseases are the leading cause of death 
        for children under 5 years of age;
Whereas millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting 
        water from distant, often polluted sources;
Whereas women and children bear disproportionate economic and educational costs 
        associated with unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation;
Whereas every dollar spent on water and sanitation saves an average of $8 in 
        costs averted and productivity gained;
Whereas water- and sanitation-related diseases account for 80 percent of the 
        sicknesses in developing countries;
Whereas 884,000,000 people lack access to an improved water supply;
Whereas 2,500,000,000 people in the world lack access to improved sanitation;
Whereas the 263 transboundary lake and river basins in the world include 
        territory in 145 countries and cover nearly \1/2\ of the Earth's land 
        surface;
Whereas climate change may cause more extreme floods and droughts, increasing 
        tension and potential clashes over transboundary freshwater resources;
Whereas the global celebration of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out 
        of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 
        Rio de Janeiro to draw attention to the global water, sanitation, and 
        hygiene crisis;
Whereas the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable 
        Development, adopted by the 2002 Johannesburg summit participants, 
        including the United States, sets forth the goal to reduce by \1/2\, 
        between 1990 and 2015, ``the proportion of people who are unable to 
        reach or to afford safe drinking water'' and ``the proportion of people 
        who do not have access to basic sanitation''; and
Whereas the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-
        121) required the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to ``elevate 
        the role of water and sanitation policy in the development of U.S. 
        foreign policy and improve the effectiveness of U.S. official programs 
        undertaken in support of the strategy'':
Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) supports the goals and ideals of World Water Day, which 
        will be observed on March 22;
            (2) urges the Department of State, the United States Agency 
        for International Development, and all relevant Federal 
        departments and agencies to increase the efforts and resources 
        dedicated to--
                    (A) providing sustainable and equitable access to 
                safe drinking water and sanitation; and
                    (B) improving the capacity for water resource 
                management for the poor and the very poor; and
            (3) encourages the people of the United States to observe 
        the day with appropriate activities that promote awareness of 
        the importance of--
                    (A) access to clean water and adequate sanitation; 
                and
                    (B) stakeholder cooperation on transboundary water 
                management.
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