Water is one of the world’s most vital resources, as the Associated Press reports. In Paraguay, a man displaced by a rising river hauls heavy buckets of it to his temporary home. In the Philippines, a girl uses a manual pump to get just enough to wash. In Venezuela’s neighborhoods, it’s collected in wells to flow into hundreds of homes.
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 U.N.’s three-day water conference that begins Wednesday. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Water Day, it’s the first dedicated U.N. conference on water in nearly 50 years.
Watch a picture collage compiled by Associated Press photographers here.
Source: Associated Press. Read the full story here
Photo: Credit Associated Press