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22 March 2001 The world's largest disaster response organisation, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies today marked World Water Day with a commitment to increase its efforts to provide disaster victims with access to clean water and sanitation. "We are stepping up our efforts in this vital area because we see increasingly that poor water and sanitation pose the greatest threat to lives in the emergency phase of most disasters when there is a high risk of epidemics," said Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, Head of the International Federation's Health Department. "World-wide, the International Federation provides impoverished communities with 20 million litres of water per day benefitting some one million people in 30 programmes. Our network now spends about fifty million Swiss Francs each year on water and sanitation. However, a lot more needs to be done given that one billion people lack access to clean water and half the world's population do not have adequate sanitation facilities. These are the people most likely to be victims of a disaster," said Uli Jaspers, the agency's senior water engineer. In the current flood crisis in southern Africa, water and sanitation activities are an essential element in the Federation's response, particularly in Malawi and Mozambique. Red Cross regional water and sanitation co-ordinator, Robert Fraser, said: "For two years running we have been battling the floodwaters in Mozambique and this year we have had to bring in an emergency water purification unit with the support of the Swedish, German and Austrian Red Cross Societies to meet the needs of people living in camps. All over this region, water and sanitation are key priorities for the Red Cross." National Red Cross Societies throughout southern Africa have been engaged in drought mitigation activities for the last ten years and they constitute some of their most successful activities at community level. Drought mitigation programmes are also underway in the Horn of Africa where water shortages complicated by man-made factors such as conflict and environmental degradation have led to food shortages in a number of countries. Water shortages across Central Asia have been the spur for several emergency appeals made by the International Federation over the last twelve on behalf of National Societies responding to needs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Tajikistan. Since the Federation established specialised Emergency Response Units for water and sanitation five years ago, it has deployed them in response to 14 major disasters around the world to benefit victims of conflict in Africa and natural disasters like Hurricane Mitch in Central America. The latest deployment took place this week in Mozambique. Another Emergency Response Unit run by the Indian Red Cross and the Federation continue to be major suppliers of clean water to the medical facilities in the earthquake-devastated town of Bhuj in Gujarat State. The Federation employs 280 staff working worldwide on water and sanitation projects, many of them on drought mitigation in Africa and Central Asia. |
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Red
Cross volunteers chlorinate the water to make it safe to drink.
