Wednesday, March 22nd

AP PHOTOS: World's water in focus as clean supplies squeezed

By The Associated Press

People, without running water at home, collect water from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

It's one of the world's most vital resources. 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 Haiti children fill large jugs of it in dwindling ravines.

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.

A web of plastic pipes running through the dirt connects water to some of the houses in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Climate change, pollution and waste have compounded water concerns by squeezing the Earth's resources. Some supplies have dwindled from lack of rain, with dry spells often lasting months if not years in some places. Others have had essential supplies contaminated by chemicals or toxins from human activity.

A punishing winter drought in southern Europe left reservoirs so bare that officials are moving fish for their survival. Kenya's dry weather and a lack of infrastructure means many people gather water at local hubs to collect enough. Peru's workers must treat water contaminated by waste from abandoned mines, bacteria and garbage. Washers rely on India's Brahmaputra river for cleaning clothes despite threats from seasonal flooding.

Some countries exposed to too much or too little water have already found ways to keep it flowing in the needed amounts. In the Netherlands, where about a third of the country is below sea level, wind pumps prevent regions from being submerged.

Delegates attending the conference in New York will agree on an agenda on Friday aimed at advancing toward a goal of having readily available, sustainably managed water and sanitation for everyone across the globe.

A washerman cleans clothes on the banks of the Brahmaputra River on World Water Day in Guwahati, India, March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

The wind pumps of Kinderdijk work in Kinderdijk, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. About a third of the country is below sea level and wind pumps prevent regions from being flooded. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

People bathe and do their laundry in a spring inside a cave due to no running water at his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Visitors look at the dry lakebed of the Canelon Grande dam that provides drinking water for the capital in Canelones, Uruguay, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico).

People get drinking water from a water collecting point at a slum area, in Karachi, Pakistan, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

A woman fills her container with water from a vendor water tank in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A woman uses a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A man bathes on the street with runoff water from a mountain in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, March 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A woman walks on a bridge over the Rimac River, a day in Lima, Peru, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

A bathtub ring shows where the water mark on Lake Mead once was along the boarder of Nevada and Arizona, March 6, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A woman balances a water can on her head while carrying a child as people collect water from a mobile water tanker on World Water Day in a residential area in New Delhi, India, March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

A man carries a container with water he collected from a mountain runoff in Caracas, Venezuela, March 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Franklin Caceres checks a water pump used to collect water from a well in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, March 20, 2023. Caceres supplies water to more than 400 people in the upper sector of Petare. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A water vendor fills water containers from a tanker in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A child, who was displaced from his home by the rising waters of the Paraguay River, runs past carrying a container filled with water, on the grounds of his temporary shelter, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

William Bermejo and his daughters carry containers with water collected from a mountain runoff near a highway tunnel in Caracas, Venezuela, March 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Carmelo Del Valle, who was displaced from his home by the rising waters of the Paraguay River, hauls buckets of water to his temporary shelter, in Asuncion, Paraguay, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

A woman washes utensils outside her house in a slum area on the eve of World Water Day in Mumbai, India, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

A resident, without running water at home, fills a container at a water fill station, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

The cracked earth of the Sau reservoir is visible north of Barcelona, Spain, March 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A section of lake Serre-Poncon that's usually submerged is visible in southern France, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Water treatment workers gather garbage inside SEDAPAL, the state water supply company in Lima, Peru, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

A youth without running water at home balances a bucket of water collected from a ravine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A girl takes a bath near a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A girl walks past a manual water pump at a slum area in Muntinlupa, Philippines on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Locals wait for their turn to fill their water containers from water collected in an abandoned highway tunnel at the Cotiza neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, March 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Fishermen use a net to catch fish that would struggle to survive in the low-oxygen water in order to protect drinking water in the Sau reservoir, about 100 km (62 miles) north of Barcelona. Spain, Monday, March 20, 2023. The Sau reservoir's water levels now stand at 9% of total capacity, according to Catalan Water Agency data, so officials have taken the decision to remove its fish to prevent them from asphyxiating. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)