Politics and campaigning can - and must - end the water and sanitation crisis
Steve Cockburn, International Campaign Coordinator for End Water Poverty calls for sanitation to be placed at the heart of the campaign to save the MDGs.
(Image: End Water Poverty)- The ‘knitted river’ - 100,000 people across the UK knitted a blue square to show their support to the campaign, which was sewn together and taken on a march to parliament.
It is just 5 days to go until leaders of 8 of the world’s most powerful countries meet in Hokkaido, Japan, to discuss measures to meet the Millennium Development Goals and (in theory at least) how they will keep the promises on aid and international development made at the Gleneagles G8 Summit in July 2005.
Belatedly forcing its way onto the agenda for the first time in years is the global sanitation and water crisis, the effects of which are well highlighted in Rhona’s previous blog, and The Lancet’s recent editorial.
A staggering 2.6 billion people across the world lack access to safe sanitation,1.1 billion people lacking access to clean water and 5000 children dying of water-related diseases every day. It is both impossible to overestimate the scale of this public health crisis and astonishing that it has taken so long to get in the in-trays of world leaders.
There is no doubt that it has been a struggle. Despite the fact that the sanitation MDG target to halve the number of people lacking access to safe sanitation by 2015 will not be achieved in Africa until 2076, campaigners have had to elbow their way to the top-table. And despite the fact it will be impossible to achieve real progress in providing universal education or reducing infant mortality without real action on sanitation, the risk remains that G8 leaders will pay lip-service to an issue on which progress on global health and development so crucially pivots.
Sadly the sanitation crisis has been a silent killer, hidden away in open slum sewers and behind bushes in rural villages. It has been kept away from the attention of world leaders, leading to neglect in aid budgets, government priorities and international institutions.
Yet hopefully that is changing. 2008 was made the UN International Year of Sanitation and campaigners across the world - many of whom form part of the End Water Poverty campaign - have increased the noise and forced leaders to act.
(Image: End Water Poverty) The Nepal petition - 100,000 petitions were collected by End Water Poverty Nepal.
Since March 2007 over 940,000 actions have been taken in support of the End Water Poverty campaign to deliver a Global Action Plan on sanitation and water, and delivered to the Japanese Embassy yesterday. These were presented to the Japanese Embassy yesterday, with campaigners forming a toilet queue outside. Grassroots campaigners have mobilized in Bangladesh, Nepal, Mali, Ghana and the UK - amongst other countries - calling for a global task force and annual review to be set up to drive progress, backed up by a commitment that funds will be available to ensure no country with a credible plan to meet the sanitation and water MDGs will fail for a lack of finance.
(Image: End Water Poverty) The EWP Mali launch - this group collected 142,000 petitions and got their President to endorse the calls at the AU Summit.
Of course developing governments must play their part too in coordinating, prioritizing and ensuring the accountability of national efforts to meet the MDG targets. And there are promising signs. In February African water ministers issued the eThekwini Declaration, promising to create coordinated nation plans to meet the MDG targets, and to increase domestic investment in the sector. It was also top of the agenda at the African Union meeting this week, with summit resolutions expected soon.
If African governments are prepared to play their part, then it is time for the rest of the world to step up. That starts at the G8 summit next week. Then world leaders meet again at the UN General Assembly in September, a day of which is dedicated to agreeing ways to save the Millennium Development Goals. But can we trust they will do what it takes without a gentle (and sometimes quite firm) nudge from their citizens? I doubt it. So your voice is required, and leaders need to hear it. Go to http://www.endwaterpoverty.org/ to find out more, read blogs and reports from the G8, and keep updated with new actions you can take as we move past the G8 and on towards the UN in calling for sanitation and water for all. Steve Cockburn, End Water Poverty
Links:
A Programme for Action, End Water Poverty: Tackling the Sanitation Crisis, End Water Poverty
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