One of the most taboo topics in development that you don’t hear often is the lack of toilets in the developing world. To bring awareness to this issue, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, AED, PATH and Water Advocates are releasing a new documentary titled, “World’s Toilet Crisis.”
An estimated 40 percent of the global population does not have access to a toilet and is forced to defecate in public or communal spaces, a common practice that enables the rapid spread of diseases like diarrhea. And during a TED event in September, Melinda French Gates called this issue a “public health threat.”
In Melinda’s experience, simply building a toilet does not change sanitation in communities. When a toilet is presented as a “modern, trendy convenience,” popularity in usage increases. She cites one example where an innovative marketing campaign from northern India ties toilets to marriage. “No loo,” one headline read, “No ‘I do.’”
If you are in the DC area, please join the Pulitzer Center on Thursday, October 28 at 7 PM. for a free screening and reception at 1875 Connecticut Ave, NW (corner of T Street). A panel discussion with Lisa Biagiotti, producer of the film and multimedia journalist for PBS and Current TV, Peter Sawyer from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Janie Hayes from PATH will follow the documentary.
You can watch the trailer for the documentary and RSVP for the event at the Pulitzer Center website.
This RainWater Bag could be a lower-cost and practical solution for mainstreaming rainwater harvesting.
This week, thousands of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) experts, and hundreds of members of the media came together in Stockholm for World Water Week to discuss solutions to the world WASH challenge.
David Trouba of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council suggested that “solving the sanitation crisis would be a more momentous accomplishment for humanity than the building of the Great Wall, the Apollo Moon Missions or the construction of the Pyramids.”
At present, the dire fact is that 1.2 billion people have to crap in the open — polluting drinking water and causing diarrheal-disease — while suffering the insecurity and indignity of open defecation. The consensus of the participants is that the world could, should and will solve this problem.
One of the specific outcomes of World Water Week was a statement targeted as a wake-up call for the High Level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that will be held in less than two weeks.
You may recall that last year, right around this time, we commemorated World Toilet Day. Time has flown, and November 19th (Thursday) marks the next annual World Toilet Day. This is a chance to “give voice to the 2.5 billion people who lack access to a toilet and the 1.8 million people who die annually as a result.”
If you live in Washington, DC, you’re invited to meet on Capitol Hill for the “Sanitation is Dignity” exhibit with speeches on the crisis & solutions by invited guests. It’s a great opportunity to spotlight a major– and solvable– health crisis. Details below:
WHAT: World Toilet Day event: “Sanitation is Dignity” exhibit and speeches on the crisis & solutions by invited guests
WHEN: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 12:30pm-1:00pm
WHERE: United States Capitol, West Front Grassy Area (north panel); West side of Capitol Building (facing Washington Monument). Near corner of 1st Street NW & Constitution Ave. NW. Take the metro to Union Station
WHO: Senator Durbin (Invited), Representative Blumenauer (Invited), Representative Payne (Invited), Water Advocates, WaterAid, CSIS, Water For People, National Resources Defense Council, Earth Day Network and others
Contact John Sauer at jsauer@wateradvocates.org if you would like to volunteer.
John Sauer, Communications Director for partner organization Water Advocates, has a column in today’s Huffington Post studying all of the attention and traction clean water efforts have been getting recently (including the Dow Live Earth Run for Water which we’ve covered here on the ONE Blog). It’s a pretty good recap of some of the big initiatives currently at play, leading Sauer to ask: “Will this”buzz” result in substantially more people getting access to water and sanitation?”
With over 2 million people dying of preventable illnesses linked to lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene every year, it is critical that the response to this crisis be as large as the need. At present this is not the case—the response is abysmally below the need. Let’s take a look.
Annually about $6 billion in development aid goes to water and sanitation programs globally, but $18 billion is the estimated amount required each year to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for water and sanitation. This is a significant gap that only a coordinated global strategy can address.
The U.S. is not the global leader that it needs to be on this issue. It trails Japan and Germany in development aid to water and sanitation issues, spending only about $432 million in 2007 according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). By contrast, Japan spent $1.9 billion and Germany $593 million.
Efforts have been made to increase U.S. leadership but they have not been successful yet. The most notable push is from Senator Durbin and 24 other senators (a quarter of the Senate) who are hoping to pass legislation (S.624) that aims to reach 100 million people with first-time access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Water and sanitation organizations suggest that the U.S. government contribution should be $1.5 billion per year.
John Sauer of Water Advocates yesterday filmed this short interview with Jae So, the manager of the Water and Sanitation Program with the World Bank. They filmed this iReport at a briefing at the Capitol Building called “Water is Medicine: Why Water and Sanitation Matter to Global Public Health.”
Update! We are now within just a few hundred signers of our 100,000 goal. If you’ve not already done so, please sign our petition in support of the Water for the World Act. On that same topic, check out this great post from John Sauer and Katryn Bowe of Water Advocates:
More than 99,000 Americans have signed an unprecedented petition to the Senate in support of global access to clean water and sanitation. The petition calls for more Senators to join Sen. Durbin and Sen. Corker to sponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S.624), a landmark bill that would commit the United States to providing 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
The advocacy organization ONE galvanized the campaign with the help of Matt Damon, a clean water champion. “Water is one of the smartest poverty fighting investments we can make,” wrote Damon.
The outpouring of support reveals the growing momentum for solving this global crisis. More journalists, universities, and politicians than ever are beginning to recognize how shameful it is that the United States has not done more on behalf of this preventable issue. And they are acting – louder than in recent memory – to do something about it.
884 million people in the world lack access to safe water, and 2.4 billion people do not even have a proper latrine to dispose of their human waste. This creates a catastrophic burden on women in developing countries (who must walk miles to fetch water), causes 1.6 million children to die of diarrhea yearly and chokes economic growth.
The solutions are known and affordable– but will only be used if there is enough political commitment to funding them. Universal access to water and sanitation is still a pipe dream for many poorer countries, especially nations in Africa. At the current rate the African continent will not even cut in half the proportion of those living without access to sanitation until 2076. This is an international travesty, but the US Government is in a position to kick-start momentum so as to greatly reduce the burden of the international safe drinking water and sanitation crisis.
Already the petition is having an impact. Since the start of the campaign three weeks ago, four Senators have signed on as co-sponsors bringing the total to 10. The petition delivery is scheduled for this week and advocates hope more Senators will sign on. The related bill (H.R.2030) has been introduced in the House by Rep. Blumenauer of Oregon, and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
This bipartisan legislation is critical for the water, sanitation and health community. If the American public and politicians commit to solving the water and sanitation crisis, the Millennium Development Goals would be closer to being reached and a push can be made for universal access to water and sanitation—the ultimate goal.
The legislation builds off of the ground-breaking Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which made addressing the water and sanitation challenge a priority of US international development policy.
We all saw how public support for AIDS was a catalyst for life-saving action. Now the same might be done for water and sanitation.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
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