Jean Michel Jarre – Water for Life

Jean Michel Jarre will hold a Water for Life” concert in the sand dunes of the Moroccan Sahara on 16 December. Using his hallmark state-of-the-art visual and sound technology, the French composer/musician will stress the importance of protecting and properly managing the planet’s limited freshwater resources and halting the advance of desertification.

«We want this concert to be a wake up call. We want to make people more aware of just how precious water is and the critical need to look after what we have,» said Jarre. «If everybody understood just how little water the earth has, or how many people are going without it – and dying as a result – or how much of it is being wasted, we might be able to find better ways of managing and sharing it. The problem of desertification is intimately linked to this situation and also requires urgent action.»

According to the UN World Water Development Report published by UNESCO earlier this year:

1 billion people do not have access to sufficient quantities of drinking water;
2.6 billion people have no access to basic sanitation;
6,000 children die every day because they lack of drinking water or insufficient hygiene;
In Africa and Asia, women travel an average eight kilometers daily to access fresh water;
The average African lives on less than 20 litres of water a day, while the average European consumes more than 150 litres daily and North Americans, 300 litres.
Four million hectares, or about one third of the planet’s land surface, are threatened by desertification.
Desertification affects the lives of more than 250 million people and threatens another 1.2 billion in 110 countries. An estimated 60 million of those affected in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to move towards northern Africa and Europe by 2020.

Details of the «Water for Life» concert will be presented at a press conference at UNESCO Headquarters on Thursday, November 23 at 11 am (Room V).