Every day is for the SDG’s or what many people call the “Sustainable Development Goals”.
These goals were created in 2015 to replace the Millenium Development Goals and were designed to last 15 years.
We have 8 years of those 15 so far.
Now, if you know what these goals are, I hope you like this blog post.
It is going to show a connection between water and each of these goals.
Photo credit: The Borgen Project
To start off, some people say that only 14 of these goals are linked to water.
I disagree with that thought or say.
I say each one of these goals has a connection with water so deep that without water, we can never score sensibly on any of these goals!
Photo credit: Water Mission
Starting with SDG 1,
With the way capitalism is stacked against, very few of us will ever be financially secured for life.
That means poverty or lacking for most of us.
I want you to picture yourself poor with little or no water; how would that feel and live?
Photo credit: Asian Development Bank
Going to SDG 2,
There have been days when I’ve been hungry and without food.
Sure, you can live without food for a while but water?
It won’t be long before your body alerts you of an imminent shutdown if you don’t get it water!
Photo credit: World Vision International
Come in SDG 3 now,
When it comes to our health and wellbeing, how are you supposed to do the basics right like washing your clothes and taking a bath, without water?
You wouldn’t want to stink for those around you, would you now?
Photo credit: UN Water
Education with a good quality to it will not happen if our cooks at school don’t have fresh water to prepare our meals.
Or if the girls don’t have running fresh water for their sanitation as they leave the restrooms.
Photo credit: UNICEF Data
How will our genders be equal, if one of them spends so much of their lifetime fetching water for the other and them to use?
We both know what happens to young women and girls at water collection points, when the boys swoop in to collect water or upset them, right?
Photo credit: WASH Matters
Clean water and sanitation really emphasize what I said earlier in goals 1,3 and 4.
Besides that, we all want to wear that fresh pair of clothes and wash our hands after having done the number 2, right?
Photo credit: Shutterstock
When it comes to affordable and clean energy,
Very many Ugandans have a story to tell with how the electricity they get, plays a central role in their lives.
Without the water that runs in our dams here, I think we would be probably skating in those facilities!
How can we grow our economies if we don’t respect the natural water ways?
We will always be in repairs and renovations of what has been spoiled or ruined by the strong rains.
Also, I will need a glass or two of fresh drink in me, to be able to do a decent job at work without complaining of those headaches, right?
Photo credit: The Water Cooler Company
All these lovely buildings we see around us,
How many of them have erected up without a single drop of water involved?
I gave the example of Uganda and hydro-powered electricity. It is what we use in our industries here.
Would we sustainably weld and join one metal to another, without that clear liquid?
Photo credit: San Antonio Express-News
When it comes to reducing inequalities,
Why do some industries take up so much of this resource at the expense of others and yet, by nature, we are all equally entitled to this resource?
The side that loses their share the most to the other, ought to be compensated at least, right?
Photo credit: Scientific American
How can we build cities and communities that are not in a position to keep running without a constant flow of water?
These places will become arid and deserts before everyone moves away from them!
Photo credit: MIT Technology Review
SDG 12 calls for our responsible consumption and production.
How can you eat that cassava you like so much without a drink?
Even if you were to produce packaged mineral water, you would need water at the start of the production chain, to generate electricity that you would use to extract this water from it’s source!
Photo credit: Bloomberg
Taking any action on our climate for it to get better will need us to reconcile our position with water.
Wanna plant a tree? It would need water.
Wanna grow your food? We will need H-2-O constantly.
Photo credit: Center for American Progress
Life below water is looking at my good friend fish and knowing that they will be caught by the fisherfolk, which will end up on my plate at lunch time.
We have seen lakes dry up in the past and all the fish in there, died a rather painful death, right?
Photo credit: seventeen goals magazin
Living on land requires us to be healthy, creative, and fearless.
How are we supposed to be all these things if we can’t even guarantee our lives and those of plants that we equally need to see this mission through?
Don’t you like watching your cat and dog hydrating, like you do?
Photo credit: Fix The Planet
Peace and justice can only work in a world where we are not murdering one another for the available scarce natural resources like this liquid of life, right?
From there, we will be able to build the strong institutions that we long to have, right?
Photo credit: India Times
At the tail end of all this, we will partner on these goals and score on them highly…perhaps even exceeding our set expectations!
Respect that liquid for better sustainable goals of development.