Germany can tackle the water and sanitation crisis
Ending water poverty will require a big push at the next G8 Summit.
Credit: Josh Hobbins
Nepalese members of the End Water Poverty coalition today (8 March 2007) met with officials at the German Embassy to urge Germany to use its leadership of the G8 in 2007 to address the water and sanitation crisis in Nepal and globally.
The G8 is the group of the world’s richest countries and it has the power to make huge changes in development. At recent G8 summits rich countries committed to a doubling of aid and to debt cancellation. Germany is hosting the G8 in 2007 and is setting the agenda for the summit.
The End Water Poverty coalition urged Germany to explicitly recognise the slow progress in extending access to sanitation and water, and recognise that sanitation and water are basic human rights, which are fundamental to poverty reduction. The coalition urged Germany to ensure that the G8 summit committed to a Global Action Plan for sanitation and water to ensure services for the world's poorest people.
Sanjaya Adhikary, Country Representative of WaterAid Nepal, said “Germany is in a unique position to make huge changes in the lives of millions of poor people throughout the world. It needs to use the G8 to initiate a task force to prepare a Global Action Plan to be adopted at the 2008 G8 Summit in Japan. Our coalition members in Europe are pushing for this to happen. In Nepal our link with Germany is through the Embassy, so today we are using these channels to get this message heard.”
The End Water Poverty coalition will be following up on the meeting at the German Embassy.