LONDON, United-Kingdom, November 18, 2011/African Press
Organization (APO)/ — A new report Off-track, off-target, released today by the
international charity WaterAid (http://www.wateraid.org),
shows that there are more people in the
world today lacking adequate sanitation services than in 1990. Unless urgent action is taken, nearly all
governments in Sub-Saharan African will fail to meet the Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) pledge they made to halve the proportion of people without
sanitation by 2015.
Vidéo and script available to broadcasters. Please
contact:
Video news release available here : http://www.wateraid.org/off-track-off-target-VNR
Off-track, off-target report available here : http://www.wateraid.org/documents/Off-track-off-target.pdf
Picture light-box and case studies available here: http://www.wateraidphotos.org/?service=lightbox&action=show_emailed_preview&language=en&code=20d26ee51054e4b2520388ac9337d3bf
The open letter from women economists can be found here: http://www.wateraid.org/documents/FemaleEconomistsLetter.pdf
On the current trajectory, it will take over two
centuries for Sub-Saharan Africa to meet its sanitation MDG target. What is more, only 20 countries in the region
are on track to meet the water MDG target by 2015. All of this has massive consequences for
child mortality in Africa.
Released a day before World Toilet Day, the report states
that to get the sanitation and water MDGs back on track, countries in
sub-Saharan Africa need to spend at least 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP)
on these services. The report also calls
on donor countries to double global aid flows to water, sanitation and hygiene
by prioritising an additional US$10 billion per year.
The report also identifies that it is Africa’s poorest
people who are being left behind; poor people in Africa are five times less
likely to have access to adequate sanitation and over 15 times more likely to
practise open defecation than Africa’s rich.
According to WaterAid, governments should tackle this inequity through
better targeting of water and sanitation resources and services to the poor.
The WaterAid report highlights that the shortfall in
water and sanitation services costs Sub-Saharan African countries around 5% of
GDP each year ($47.7 billion in 2009), more than is provided in development aid
to the entire continent ($47.6 billion in 2009).
In a coordinated move, an international group of 34
female economists have also written an open letter to the leaders of eleven
donor and developing country governments, to draw attention to the
international water and sanitation crisis.
In it they state:
On the day you read this letter, 4,000 more children
under five will die due to diseases brought about through unsafe water and poor
sanitation. This equates to more child
deaths than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, making it the biggest child
killer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Every $1 invested in water and sanitation generates on
average an $8 return; making it the deal that will deliver for billions of the
poorest people across the globe.
Barbara Frost, WaterAid’s Chief Executive, said:
“Governments in both donor and developing countries have
it in their power to save hundreds of thousands of children’s lives every year
by increasing what they spend on water and sanitation. Investments in these basic services are
engines of economic growth and prosperity in developing countries, but unless
we grasp this opportunity we will be failing the millions of poor people whose
health, livelihoods and opportunities suffer because they lack these essential
services.”
The Off-track, off-target report is being published on
the day WaterAid launches the Water Works campaign to urge governments across
the world to do more to tackle the water and sanitation crisis. The campaign
aims to show world leaders that taps and toilets are simple, effective and
affordable, and that investing in these basic human needs is an urgent
priority.
On World Toilet Day WaterAid will also join other members
of the End Water Poverty campaign in 50 coordinated ‘Crisis Talk’ events in
over 20 countries where local groups will be meeting with politicians to
discuss the water and sanitation crisis.
In Tanzania, Crisis Talk events are being organised to
coincide with the local government budgeting cycle; in the UK, WaterAid’s local
supporter groups are meeting with their Members of Parliament; in Bangladesh
regional events will be held where the public affected by poor water and
sanitation provision will hold members of parliament to account.
Distributed by the African Press Organization for
WaterAid.
NOTES:
For more information please contact Hratche Koundarjian
on +44 (0)207 793 4909 / +44 (0)7905 911 039 or by email
hratchekoundarjian@wateraid.org at WaterAid UK.
WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access
to safe water and sanitation. The
international organisation works in 27 countries across Africa, Asia, the
Pacific region and Central America to transform lives by improving access to
safe water, hygiene and sanitation in some of the world’s poorest
communities. Over the past 30 years,
WaterAid has reached 15.9 million people with safe water and, since 2004, 11
million people with sanitation. For more
information, visit http://www.wateraid.org,
follow @wateraid (http://twitter.com/#!/WaterAid)
on Twitter or visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wateraid
End Water Poverty is an international campaign to end the
water and sanitation, with 190 member organisations around the world. Together,
hundreds of thousands of ordinary people are calling on governments to take
bold action to save lives. For more
information visit us here: http://www.endwaterpoverty.org
and on twitter: @endwaterpoverty (http://twitter.com/#!/EndWaterPoverty)
*
Every day
2,000 children die due to diarrhoea brought about by a lack of safe water and
inadequate sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa. This is the biggest cause of
deaths of children under the age of five in the region. Four out of ten people
don’t have access to safe water, while seven out of ten people don’t have
access to adequate sanitation.
* Globally
there are more people today lacking adequate sanitation services than in 1990,
and the MDG target is due to be missed by over a billion people. 884 million people in the world do not have
access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world’s
population. 2.6 billion people in the
world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of
the world’s population.
SOURCE
WaterAid
No comments:
Post a Comment
The views expressed in this section are the authors' own. It does not represent The North Bank Evening Standard (TNBES)'s editorial policy. Also, TNBES is not responsible for content on external links.