UN Secretary-General's Message on World Water Day
New York, 22 March 2010

Water is the source of life and the link that binds all living beings on this planet. It is connected directly to all our United Nations goals: improved maternal and child health and life expectancy, women's empowerment, food security, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Recognition of these links led to the declaration of 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”.

水是生命之源，也是维系地球上所有生命的纽带。水直接关系到我们联合国的各项目标：改善孕产妇和儿童健康和提高预期寿命、增强妇女力量、粮食安全、可持续发展以及适应和减缓气候变化。正是因为认识到这些联系才宣布2005-2015年为“生命之水”国际行动十年。

Our indispensable water resources have proven themselves to be greatly resilient, but they are increasingly vulnerable and threatened. Our growing population's need for water for food, raw materials and energy is increasingly competing with nature's own demands for water to sustain already imperiled ecosystems and the services on which we depend. Day after day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural wastes into the world's water systems. Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer with the onset of climate change. And the poor continue to suffer first and most from pollution, water shortages and the lack of adequate sanitation.

我们不可缺少的水资源确实具有巨大的复原力，但它们越来越脆弱也日趋受到威胁。不断增长的人口对食物、原材料和能源用水的需求与大自然本身对维持濒危生态系统和继续提供我们赖以生存的服务的水量需求之间竞争日趋激烈。人类每天都向世界各水系中倾倒千百万吨未经处理的污水以及工业和农业废物。清洁饮水已经成为稀缺资源，而且随着气候变化的到来将变得更加稀缺。穷人将首当其冲地受到污染、缺水和缺乏适当卫生条件的影响。

The theme of this year's World Water Day, “Clean Water for a Healthy World”, emphasizes that both the quality and the quantity of water resources are at risk. More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. These deaths are an affront to our common humanity, and undermine the efforts of many countries to achieve their development potential.

今年世界水日的主题是“保障清洁水源，创造健康世界”，强调水资源质量和数量都面临威胁。因饮用不卫生的水而死亡的人数超过了包括战争在内等一切形式暴力的死亡人数。这些死亡是对我们共同人性的侮辱，也破坏了许多国家充分发挥发展潜力的努力。

The world has the know-how to solve these challenges and become better stewards of our water resources. Water is central to all our development goals. As we mark the mid-point of the International Decade for Action, and look forward to this year's MDG Summit, let us protect and sustainably manage our waters for the poor, the vulnerable and for all life on Earth.

世界已掌握解决这些难题的专门技能，能够更好地管理水资源。水对于我们的所有发展目标都至关重要。现在，该国际行动十年已为期过半，我们期待今年举行千年发展目标首脑会议，让我们保护水资源并对之进行可持续的管理，以增进穷人和弱势群体的利益，保护地球上的所有生命。