EDITORIAL: WHY WATER MONITORING is CRUCIAL TO HEALTHY LIVING
Today, September 18th, is World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) which was so-established in 2003 by America’s Clean Water Foundation (ACWF) as a global educational outreach programme.
Not to be confused with ‘World Water Day’ – an annual UN Observance Day held on March 22 to highlight the importance of fresh water – WWMD has the objective of building and bolstering public awareness and involvement in protecting water sources and resources around the world by empowering communities to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.
Also known as ‘World Water Monitoring Challenge,’ and ‘EarthEcho Water Challenge,’ WWMD is basically an educational programme that is generally used to emphasize the importance of water for all living organisms, including humans, animals and plants.
As the main element of the human body, the water we need and use must not only be clean and safe; it must also be available and readily accessible at affordable cost at all times.
But, this has not always been easy, or the case on the ground on a sustainable basis – what with environmental pollution being the main culprit in this tragic default.
Hence the need to closely and functionally monitor water sources and supplies… And, hence again, the creation of World Water Monitoring Day and suchlike initiatives that are designed and intended to ameliorate the universal problem – if not surmount it altogether in one way or another.
Even after nearly 60 years of ‘(political) independence’ from foreign rule in 1961, Tanzania is yet to be free from the debilitating challenges that wreak havoc on this crucial resource.
These include – but are by no means limited to – water scarcity/inadequate water supplies; water pollution; lack of proper and adequate sanitation systems, and the assorted adverse impacts of climate change on the resource.
Still, this does not prevent us from joining the rest of the world in monitoring water supplies – not only on WWMD, but at all times.
BEST OF LUCK, YANGA
One of Tanzania’s renowned football clubs, Young Africans (Yanga), take on Nigeria’s Rivers United football club in Port Harcourt tomorrow in a ‘return’ preliminary round match of the African Champions League.
Yanga need a 2-0 victory to qualify for the second preliminary round of the competition slated for next month. This is because they lost 1-0 to their Nigerian adversaries in a match played at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam a week ago.
It is an uphill task for Yanga – especially considering that Rivers United would be playing on home ground, and didn’t lose any of the last ten matches they played at home.
We, therefore, urge the Yanga players to ensure that they try hard to do their best in Port Harcourt tomorrow, and advance to the tourney’s next stage.
This would put the club in the same boat (so to speak) with Azam FC and Biashara Mara as bearers of the country’s sports flag in the continental soccer stakes – both clubs having won their preliminary-round matches in the Caf Championships.
The Yanga players must, therefore, focus on victory tomorrow, bearing in mind the adage that ‘the only place where dreams are impossible to realise is in one’s mind.’
So, they must indeed go on out there and GET IT DONE!
