[child-rights] World facing silent emergency as billions struggle without clean water and basic sanitation

UNICEF Press release

WHO/UNICEF report warns that vicious cycle of ill-health and poverty could
defeat human development efforts, with children first to suffer

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 26 August 2004 - More than 2.6 billion people ­ over 40
per cent of the world's population ­ do not have basic sanitation, and
more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water,
warns a major report released today by WHO (the World Health Organization)
and UNICEF.

Entitled Meeting the Millennium Development Goals drinking water and
sanitation target - A mid-term assessment of progress, the report details
the progress of individual countries, regions, and the world as a whole
between the MDG baseline year of 1990 and the half-way mark of 2002. It
makes two significant predictions on reaching the 2015 goals, based on
progress to date:

* The global sanitation target will be missed by a staggering half a
billion people ­ most of them in rural Africa and Asia ­ allowing waste
and disease to spread, killing millions of children and leaving millions
more on the brink of survival. * The world is on track to meet the
drinking water target, but population growth may outstrip improvements,
with 800 million people still drinking unsafe water by 2015.

This severe human and economic toll could be prevented by closing the gap
between urban and rural populations and by providing simple hygiene
education, say UNICEF and WHO.

The agencies warned that a global trend towards urbanization is
marginalising the rural poor and putting huge strain on basic services in
cities. As a result, families living in rural villages and urban slums are
being trapped in a cycle of ill-health and poverty. Children are always
the first to suffer from the burden of disease caused by dirty water and
poor hygiene, while the wider impact of unhygienic environments drags back
economic progress and erodes good governance.

"Around the world millions of children are being born into a silent
emergency of simple needs," says Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's Executive
Director. "The growing disparity between the haves and the have nots in
terms of access to basic services is killing around 4000 children every
day and underlies many more of the 10 million child deaths each year. We
have to act now to close this gap or the death toll will certainly rise."

"Water and sanitation are among the most important determinants of public
health. They are amongst the top of WHO's list of components of primary
health care. Wherever people achieve reliable access to safe
drinking-water and adequate sanitation they have won a major battle
against a wide range of diseases." says WHO Director-General Dr LEE
Jong-wook.

Developing regions of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are most at
risk. But the report also highlights some worrying trends in the
industrialised regions**, where coverage figures for clean water and basic
sanitation facilities are estimated to have decreased by 2 per cent
between 1990 and 2002. In the former Soviet Union, only 83 per cent had
access to adequate sanitation facilities. With economic and population
pressures growing, these percentages could decrease.

The consequences of inaction today are severe, according to WHO and
UNICEF.  Diarrhoeal disease currently takes the lives of 1.8 million
people each year ­ most of them children under five - with millions more
left permanently debilitated. Over 40 billion work hours are lost in
Africa to the need to fetch drinking water. And many children,
particularly girls, are prevented from going to school for want of
latrines, squandering their intellectual and economic potential.

Reversing this trend and moving towards universal coverage for water and
sanitation will take more than money, said Bellamy and Lee. National
policies based on the principle of "some for all" rather than "all for
some" have been the key to improvements in many countries. And at the
local level, resources have to be retargeted to include the poorest
communities, with local government and the private sector co-operating to
bring affordable solutions.

"To meet the 2015 targets, countries need to create the political will and
resources to serve a billion new urban dwellers, and reduce by almost 1
billion the number of rural dwellers without access to adequate sanitation
facilities ­ otherwise we risk leaving millions, if not billions, out of
the development process," says Dr Lee.

WHO and UNICEF say the report, which is the first in a series looking at
progress in water and sanitation coverage, should be a wake up call to all
global leaders. Every country still has work to do to eliminate
disparities in basic services and the data shows clearly how that can be
done before the MGD deadline of 2015.

There are also very encouraging signs. Great gains in water and sanitation
coverage have been made against considerable odds in many countries. This
progress came as a direct result of political prioritisation and a drive
to find locally effective solutions.

"This report is important because it proves that significant improvements
are possible in a short space of time, even in the poorest countries."
says Ms Bellamy. "By identifying trends now, and committing to course
corrections, we have a real opportunity to ensure that by 2015 these basic
essentials of life are available to all."


--
The "child-rights" mailing list provides information on issues related
to children's human rights. Archives of "child-rights" messages, as well
as instructions on how to (un)subscribe to the list, can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/maillist.php