United Nations Environmental Program

Tracy Das

unep@worldmun.org

Tracy Das is a sophomore from Waltham, Massachusetts studying Government and French on a pre-law track at Harvard. Outside of WorldMUN, Tracy serves as the Outreach Director of the Harvard Undergraduate Law Review, Senior Staff Writer for Harvard Model Congress, and Treasurer for the Harvard Black Pre-Law Association. In her free time, she loves reading autobiographies of prominent Black figures, hanging out with friends and family, and doing pilates.

Topic: Water Quality

Water is vital for survival. Water is a human right. The United Environment Programme (UNEP) has declared a global shortage of clean water since the 1980s. The demand for water due to growing populations, industrial use, and agricultural irrigation has been worsened by the effects of climate change, water pollution and the lack of infrastructure. While it is crucial to control and oversee the balance between water availability and usage in both the immediate and distant future, the crux of this matter lies in the significant influence of climate change.

Presently, over “2 billion people will live in water-stressed countries, which is expected to be exacerbated in some regions and at least 1.7 billion people will use a drinking water source contaminated with feces.” Contamination of feces poses the greatest risk to drinking-water safety. As we live in the day of technology, “improved drinking water technologies are more likely than those characterized as unimproved to provide safe drinking water” and prevent contact with human waste. Investments onto water sources need to be made to improve access for all. Adequately developed water resources will keep individuals physically healthy, promote equality of opportunities for the underprivileged, and maintain our world’s ecosystems. Water is “also at the heart of adaptation to climate change, serving as the crucial link between society and the environment.”

As you negotiate with other delegates on potential resolutions, keep in mind the financial and social barriers that prevent nations around the world from adequately improving sanitation and clean drinking water for all citizens. By the end of the conference, I hope to see well-developed solutions tackling our current water crisis and specific implementations and requests from members of the international community. The United Nations Environment Programme is dependent on it.