The
consumption of water and the generation of human wastes are
such commonplace aspects of human life that planning for their
appropriate use or removal may be overlooked. There is ample
evidence to show that failure to ensure an adequate supply of
uncontaminated water or to arrange for safe disposal of excreta,
as well as the failure to implement, in parallel, appropriate
health promotion activities aimed at changing people’s
behaviour, are major contributing factors to disease transmission,
ill health, misery and death.
Today, more than one billion people lack access to clean water
and over two billion do not have adequate sanitation facilities.
Around four million people die each year from diseases associated
to the lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation
and poor hygiene – this figure includes some 4,000 children
under five years old who die every day. In addition, in times
of disaster and crises, the urgency to meet basic water and
sanitation needs and promote good hygiene underpins the need
to save lives, reduce disease and restore dignity.
The overall water and sanitation challenge is best expressed
in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular
goals No. 2, 3, 4 and 7, which have water and sanitation components.
Our response is therefore to set ourselves the target of contributing
to meeting those goals.
In the water and sanitation sector, experience has shown that
effectiveness of water supply and sanitation projects depends
not only on the choice of technology ("hardware")
but also on gender responsive water and sanitation facilities,
community management and behavioural change, core elements of
the "software" component. The International Federation
advocates for the integration of these two components in water
and sanitation projects as well as hygiene promotion activities.
Over the last ten years, the International Federation has established
and consolidated a water and sanitation vision, policy and capacity
to better address global challenges.
First, we need to deal with acute water and sanitation challenges,
which are mostly related to crises and disasters, and where
it is urgent to provide basic needs to save lives, contain or
reduce health threats and restore dignity.
Over the last twelve years, the International Federation has
provided more than six million people with basic water and sanitation
services and hygiene-related needs in times of crises and disasters.
It is envisioned that emergency demands in the water and sanitation
sector will increase and the technology we use needs to be revised
periodically to incorporate new developments and improve response
capacity.
This improved response capacity will focus upon sanitation and
health promotion in post-disaster scenarios. The International
Federation Secretariat (Water and Sanitation unit of the Health
and Care Department) takes the lead not only in the coordination
of response, but also in the crucial development of our response
capacity.
The other component is how to address chronic water and sanitation
challenges, mostly related to the fact that a large proportion
of the world’s poor still do not have access to adequate
safe water and sanitation, causing death, disease and loss of
productivity.
Over the last ten years, the International Federation has provided
more than 2.5 million people with sustainable water and sanitation
facilities. The Federation has decided to increase significantly
its contribution to the UN Millenium Development Goal to “reduce
by half those without sustainable water and sanitation facilities
by 2015”.
Using the International Federations unique network of National
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, volunteers and grassroots
structures, a ten-year Global Water and Sanitation Initiative
(GWSI) was launched in 2005 to increase to over five million
by 2015 the people who will have access to developmental water
and sanitation programmes.
GWSI is also used as an umbrella for resource mobilization as
well as setting new criteria and standards for National Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide. Under the GWSI,
a special focus will be on water and sanitation for People Living
with HIV.
After two years, the GWSI is on target, having identified more
than 15 large scale country-based projects in Africa, Caribbean
and the Pacific.
The International Federation is also building more partnerships
with other organizations, both public and private, to make safe
water and sanitation available to more and more people throughout
the world and to significantly reduce the number of deaths linked
to water-borne diseases.
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Uli
Jaspers, Head of the International Federation’s
Water and Sanitation Unit in Geneva. (p15506)
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