Model United Nations - Sample Position Paper

Committee: United Nations Environment Programme

Topic: Water Pollution

Country: Brazil

A. The first aspect of water pollution put into consideration as disastrous events shaped world opinion. The oil spills of the Torrey Canyon in 1967 and the Exxon Valdez in 1989 helped to maintain the UN's focus on the cooperation to prevent and respond to such disasters in the oceans. These oil spills were forms of point sources where the dangerous substances are directly emitted into the water. It are nonpoint sources (NPS), however, which have consisted of the majority of recent concern. Nonpoint sources deliver pollutants indirectly through environmental changes. Carried by rainfall, in particular, toxins are able to penetrate underground sources, lakes, rivers, and other water supplies. These include the threat of chemicals from industrial areas, improper disposal of sewage, and unsafe use of pesticides. Estimates suggest that globally, 1.5 billion people fail to have safe drinking water, along with 5 million deaths each year that can be attributed to waterborne diseases.

B.The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL) in 1954 signaled the beginning in a series of concerns about water pollution. The first major international conference to debate freshwater pollution issues, however, evolved at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. Ten years past the conference, 95 separate countries had since created environmental agencies to complement the previous eleven countries. The United Nations also established Agenda 21 in the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Convention, which established a plan for sustainable development. Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 was dedicated to the protection of the quality of the freshwater supply.