Finding the toilet in Stockholm

Last week a mix of water and sanitation experts gathered for World Water Weekin Stockholm, Sweden to mull over the world’s biggest public health crisis. The problem is that not enough people paid attention.

Each year over 2 million deaths could be prevented with improvements related to access to safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene. To put that in perspective, we have it within our grasp to prevent the equivalent deaths of 10 Asian tsunamis or 1,000 Hurricane Katrinas. Yet a major effort—like those that have been launched to address HIV/AIDS and malaria—to tackle the global drinking water and sanitation crisis remains elusive. The scope of this disconnect is baffling; water- and sanitation-related diseases (like relatively-easy-to-prevent diarrhea) kill more children each year than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

One reason why there hasn’t been a Herculean effort to address this global scourge is that we in the water and sanitation sector are not doing enough to influence how this issue is understood by others. We have not been proactive or coordinated enough to frame the issue to the media and the wider development community in an action-oriented “this-can-be-done” tone.

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Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. These donations to UNICEF will go towards improving access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Plug in your zip code to find restaurants in your city.

World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, March 20. In New York you can help bring awareness to the sanitation crisis by “standing up for those that can’t sit down.”

PSI will host a World Water Day discussion about their Safe Water Programs, the successes and challenges, and the way forward on March 20 from 3:30-5:00 PM. If interested, please RSVP to akhanna@psi.org.

Celebrate World Water Day with Water For People on Friday, March 21. Raffles and speakers-including Amy Hart - Filmmaker, WATER FIRST-will make the evening one to remember.

If in Louisville, KY, join Edge Outreach on March 21, 2008 for a night of music, water and film. Join speakers and hear stories of what is being done for those without water and sanitation.

The DC Environmental Film Festival will have several water movies showing on World Water Day March 22. There is also a panel of water experts at 4:00 PM that day from Water Advocates, the Global Water Challenge, Natural Resources Defense Council and ConservationStrategy.

Join the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates and others at the Student Movement for Real Change event on March 22: “Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day”.

In 2007, 69 cities across the United States passed resolutions acknowledging March 22 as World Water Day. Join those interested in promoting World Water Day in a variety of events across the country.

WaterAid America in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History present a panel discussion exploring the burden unsafe water and sanitation place on women, and the role women can play in water and sanitation development interventions. The discussion will be held on World Water Day, March 22.

Attention runners: join in an effort to raise awareness about the global water and sanitation challenge and help build a borehole well in the Azawak Valley, Niger - sign up for a Run for Water on March 22.

The Global Health Council will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill called “The Link Between Clean Water and Health.” The briefing will be on March 26 at 12:30 PM on Capitol Hill.