Delegate: Owen Bishop
Country: Belgium
Committee: Environmental
Topic: Access to Water
The issue of access to safe and clean water is one of the most pressing that the world currently faces. Water is a human right and necessary for survival for everyone on earth as humans can only survive for three days without water. The UN needs to take action to aid developing nations in being able to provide water for their people. Additionally, it is necessary for developed nations to ensure that their water supplies are not merely available but also clean as to avoid the spread of disease and other issues.
Belgium heavily recognizes the importance of water as a human right by both providing financial support to those who can’t pay water bills as well as through a minimum supply of guaranteed water. This has allowed Belgian people to have a reliable source of clean water allowing them to be able to live without fear of not having access to this critical supply. Belgium would be in favor of potential resolutions passed to encourage other nations to enact similar policies to better ensure that people are not failing to receive water even in wealthy countries with access to it.
The other pressing issue is ensuring that the water people have access to is clean. In 2003, Belgium was labeled as having one of the worst water supplies in the world. Since then, Belgium has improved infrastructure to better clean their water supply. However, the majority of the water used in Belgium comes largely from the southern regions as the north is lacking a clean supply. Through this, the committee can see that it is critical that nations have the ability to improve their infrastructure as well as revealing the importance of sharing water both inside of a nation and between multiple nations to ensure that everyone has access to clean, safe drinking water.
Work Cited:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/be.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Belgium
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3458-sewage-laden-belgian-water-worst-in-world/ https://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/water/contributions/Belgium.pdf
- Owen Bishop