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- At any given time, 50 per cent of the world’s hospital beds are in use by people with water- and sanitation-related diseases
- The lack of basic sanitation facilities means resorting to open defecation in fields or streets or using “flying toilets” – bags full of human waste that litter neighbourhoods and undermine quality of life
The Good News
- Providing access to sanitation promises to save lives, stimulate gender equality, support environmental safety, bolster education, and provide a foundation for economic growth
- The broad benefits associated with preventing deaths caused by poor sanitation outweigh the costs of implementing and maintaining basic facilities
- The global return on investment in basic sanitation provision is in the area of $9 for every $1 spent
2008: the International Year of Sanitation
- To combat the sanitation crisis, the United Nations seeks to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”, as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), announced in 2000
- With current investment levels, the MDG sanitation targets will not be met, and over half a billion people will remain unserved
- To put a spotlight on the issue and to accelerate progress towards the MDG target, the UN General Assembly has declared 2008 The International Year of Sanitation
- The official launch of the International Year of Sanitation takes place from UN Headquarters, New York, November 21, 2007
Join the movement. Keep the promise.
- Write your MP. Build their political will to act.
- Join WaterCan in the campaign to End Water Poverty. Ask your friends and family to do the same.
- Support WaterCan’s efforts to provide clean water and sanitation for all!
Links
- The Need for Clean Water
- Sanitation and Water Action Network (SWAN) Canada
- UNICEF - Progress for Children: A report card on water and sanitation
- Human Development Report 2006 - Beyond scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis
- WHO & UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation
- 2nd United Nations World Water Development Report, March 2006