Topic: Access to Safe Drinking Water
Country: Mozambique
Delegate Name: Ben Silverman
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Mozambique position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
Since 1999, Mozambique has attempted to work out its water scarcity issues with the tactic of pubic-private partnerships. We are very fortunate to have the financial aid of Portugal through a private company called Aguas de Mozambique. They have helped us gain several sources for water. Although this help is great, it is very expensive and is limited to only the largest cities of Mozambique. Even then, those cities will have limited use of water to at most 17 hours each day. After the larger cities, villages and small towns will have to pay a large amount to get water.
Safe drinking water (also referred to as potable water) is very important for all countries. Potable water is limited and yet is essential for life. It is used for sanitation and is important for treating diseases and preventing health-related problems. Drinking-water needs to be of high quality. All around the world, there is fresh-water being contaminated with pollution. Salt water is one source to look to. Although very abundant, it is very expensive to desalinate and change into fresh-water to be healthy.
Pollution is a factor to any environmental issue. Safe drinking water is not an exception. Once a source is contaminated, a very long process has to be done to clean that water. One solution to stop the pollution of water sources is the introduction of laws against pollution and then enforcement of these laws.
Mozambique has approximately 2,500 kilometers of coast line along the Indian Ocean. Therefore, there is nearly unlimited potential water for us to desalinate. If proper and inexpensive means were presented for desalinization, the results would benefit us as well as the many coastal nations throughout the entire world. For this reason, desalinization research should be another focus, and find ways to reduce the financial impact of desalinization.
Mozambique would like to work with all other nations to achieve these goals.
