G8 leave 2.5 billion people with no place to go
As G8 leaders delay action, new report suggests sanitation failure could kill 2.4 million children by 2009.
It is estimated that 2.4 million child deaths each
year are attributable to poor sanitation.
Credit: WaterAid
8 July
Hopes of a breakthrough in the global sanitation and water crisis at the G8 summit were today dashed as the G8 delivered a communique largely devoid of concrete actions to help the 2.5 billion people lacking access to a safe toilet, and the 884 million people lacking access to clean water.
Instead of agreeing an action plan to tackle what a recent WaterAid report claims kills more children than any other single factor, G8 leaders were content to report on progress at the 2009 summit and take steps to implement the discredited 2003 G8 Evian Water Action Plan.
Proposals included in earlier communique drafts for an annual meeting and review to drive progress had been removed, while the G8 failed to provide any specific financial commitments.
Hopes of a breakthrough were originally raised when Japan promised to make sanitation and water a key issue at this year's summit for the first time in 5 years, as part of the UN's International Year of Sanitation. Yet the last week has seen text negotiated downwards, lowering ambitions in the most deadly way.
Steve Cockburn, International Campaign Coordinator, End Water Poverty said: "Like Nero fiddling as Rome burned, G8 leaders have asked the 40% of the world's population who are dying for a toilet to hang on for another year, by which time up to 2.4 million children may have died from illnesses caused by poor sanitation."
"Five years was a long time to wait to discuss an issue that kills more children than any other, and forcing 2.6 billion people to wait even longer for a safe toilet leaves a stench of complacency."
"The G8 seem to perfectly display the attitude of 'why do today what can be put off until tomorrow', when for thousands of children tomorrow will be too late."
More positively, however, the inclusion of sanitation and water in the communiqué - the first significant inclusion in five years - does represent some hope that neglect for the sector might be reversed, and could provide a useful platform if built on with ambitious measures and through the correct procedures. This should include developing and financing a global action plan to achieve the sanitation and water Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, and making it a major focus of the UN High-Level meeting on the MDGs this September.
Laura Webster, Senior Government Relations Advisor at Tearfund said: "If there is anything positive it is that the sanitation crisis is finally coming out into the open, gaining recognition amongst world leaders as fundamental to development. But this must just be the beginning - the start of an extraordinary effort to ensure life and dignity for the world's people."
"The world's poor cannot wait forever and if leaders are serious we need to see this issue prioritised by UN member states when they meet this September to try to rescue the MDGs."
At current rates sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the MDG target to halve the proportion of people without access to safe sanitation until 2076 - 61 years after the target date.
Ends
For more information and interviews call Steve Cockburn in Japan on +81 90 5323 4889
Available for interview:
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Laura Webster, Senior Government Relations Advisor, Tearfund
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Steve Cockburn, International Campaign Coordinator, End Water Poverty
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Oliver Cumming, Policy Officer, WaterAid
Notes for the editor:
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End Water Poverty is coalition of over 100 NGOs in over 35 countries that has been leading an international campaign - and has been supported by almost 1 million actions since March 2007.
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WaterAid's report is entitled Tackling the Silent Killer: The Case for Sanitation and is available at http://www.wateraid.org/report. It estimates that 2.4 million child deaths each year are attributable to poor sanitation through diahrroeal diseases, pneumonia and malnutrition.
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Globally, 2.5 billion people have no access to safe sanitation, and 884 million people have no access to clean water.
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UNDP calculates that every $1 invested in sanitation gains a $9 economic return.
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The sanitation and water crisis undermines all development efforts and holds back progress in child and maternal health, gender equity and universal education.
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Each year at least 5% of Africa's GDP, and over 443 million school days, are lost to water and sanitation-related illness.