A look at world water day..

The World Water Day is held annually on March 22 to celebrate something that most of us take for granted. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of water. It's a day for those of us in developing countries to step back and assess the facts of how much water we actually use in our daily lives.

The UN General Assembly, in its resolution 65/154, decided to proclaim International Year of Water Cooperation: Making it Happen!, a day dedicated to something so basic and simple that most people never give it a second thought: Clean water.

We leave our water footprint in nearly all of our daily human activities from our morning shower to our evening meal.

A massive amount of water goes into the food we eat, far more than most people think. For instance, it takes about 1500 liters of water to produce 1kg of beef and, statistically, it takes a thousand times more water to feed the human population than it does to satisfy its thirst.

Did you know that almost a billion people are forced to spend countless hours scavenging for water each day?

The goal of the day is to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

One out of every eight people worldwide lacks safe drinking water, and two out of every five people lack adequate sanitation.

Those who have better access to water tend to have lower levels of undernourishment and the lack of water can be a major cause of famine in areas where people depend on local agriculture for both food and income.

It's undeniable that those living without safe drinking water reside in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the global demand for water is growing. There are currently over seven billion people to feed on the planet and another two billion are expected to join by 2050.

By 2025, the UN expects that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity and two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water-stressed conditions.

The UN suggests several ways we can help, including the need to reduce the roughly 30% of food produced worldwide that is lost or wasted every day. In several developing countries, a large portion of the food is lost between the farmers' fields and the market due to poor storage and transportation facilities.

In more developed countries, and in particular cities, food is wasted by the consumer who is either not aware of or not sensitive to the resources needed to produce it.

Investing in water, sanitation, and hygiene programs is one of the smartest investments in tight economic times because communities with safe drinking water and adequate sanitation see tangible progress in children's health, school attendance, and local economic development.

Not all the news is bad on World Water Day. A report released earlier this month noted that over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources between 1999 and 2010.

While the road may be long, each small step is making a difference.

For something so essential to all of life, it is only fitting that once a year the world takes a moment to contemplate this mysterious and essential life-giving compound.

How are you celebrating World Water Day 2013?

Mobile Phones on the increase

A few years ago here in Ghana, the mobile phone was a luxury and only the very rich could afford one. This has changed with time and right now everyone has a cell phone which can do more than just make a call or send a text message.

One of the most functional services that the mobile phone has been offering customers is money transfer services.

For instance, many people who could not complete the many bank requirements have been able to transact on their mobile phones with a lot of ease.

Through the mobile phone, people can buy talk time, pay their utility bills, transfer funds, access their bank details as well as receive payments from various parties.

The transactions are flexible as one can initiate them at the comfort of their homes as long as they have some funds in their account.

 International barriers to transacting have also been reduced through international mobile money transfer services.

You may be wondering about the security of the funds on your mobile phone. Everyone registering for the mobile cash transfer services will do so with their original passport or recognized identification.

 They will then have a unique password and a secret word that they are vetted on before any transaction can be carried out. Each user has to hold the vetting data as confidential to prevent occurrence of fraud.

Will the cell phone come to override the use of credit cards, hard cash payments and use of checks? Only time will tell.