DEVELOPMENT: SANITATION EMERGES AS MAJOR CONCERN AT WATER SUMMIT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 18, 2008, 2008 (IPS/GIN via COMTEX) -- ITWT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The world's poorest nations are making halting progress toward water accessibility but little or no tangible improvement in the realm of sanitation.

Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute, said the global state of sanitation is "one of the world's greatest scandals."

Addressing the 18th international water conference in the Swedish capital Monday, Berntell said 2.5 billion people still lack access to adequate sanitation, resulting in some 1.4 million preventable child deaths due to diarrheal diseases each year.

As a follow-up to the U.N.'s International Year of Sanitation 2008, this year's World Water Week, which is being hosted by institute, will primarily focus on problems of sanitation worldwide.

The conference, which involves more than 40 workshops through Friday, is being attended by a record 2,400 participants, including government officials, donors, academics, engineers, scientists and representatives of the private sector and international organizations.

The U.N.'s millennium development goals, which seek to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015, has also set a target of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation.

But this goal may never be reached, said the institute, unless at least $10 billion are invested every year, through 2015, to improve sanitation worldwide.

Meanwhile, according to a joint study early this year by the World Health Organization and the U.N. Children's Fund, there is marked improvement on the water front. The number of people living without a supply of improved drinking water has declined to well below 1 billion, down from about 1.4 billion last year.

Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, chair of the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, told delegates that more than half the global population now has water piped to their homes, and the number of people using unimproved water supplies continues to decline.

However, he related a starkly contrasting story on sanitation, citing "disturbing facts and figures that illustrate the consequences of having no access to sanitation."

"But it is worth noting that very many people are still not familiar with the statistics or even aware that there is a global sanitation crisis."

It is these people -- policymakers and opinion leaders -- that have never suffered the lack of adequate sanitation, and if they have, it is too long ago to remember the undignified, inhumane circumstances, he added.

"These people use a fancy toilet, which is connected to an effective sewer system. And they are probably unaware that this toilet and its flushing system are critical to a healthy life."

The prince said it is hard for them to imagine how unsafe -- not to mention embarrassing -- it is to relieve oneself in public, in the middle of the street, or how difficult it is for women in rural areas to wait for sunset to find a bush or faraway field, fearing physical assault or rape.

Still, all is not lost, said the chair of the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, which originally recommended that the United Nations declare 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.

"The year is not over yet, but I would like to take a look at what the [sanitation campaign] has achieved so far," Willem-Alexander said.

In fact, he said, this is also an appropriate moment to decide what needs to be done in the final months of the International Year of Sanitation and agree on the future road map for achieving the millennium development goal on water and sanitation.

He referred to many international, regional, national and local events and initiatives that have been launched this year.

The regional sanitation conferences, for example, such as LatinoSan, AfricaSan, EaSan and SacoSan, produced unprecedented declarations that provide a strong foundation for developing the water and sanitation sectors in these regions.

There has been remarkable progress in Asia and Latin America in terms of access to improved sanitation, he added.

In Africa, too, the number of people gaining access is rising steadily, but the increase cannot keep pace with population growth. More people means more waste. It's that simple.

Still, according to the joint World Health Organization-UNICEF report, the worrying conclusion is that, at the current rate, the world will miss its millennium development goal concerning sanitation by more than 700 million people.

"If we are to reach the target, we now need to provide at least 173 million people per year with access to improved sanitation," the prince said.

But there have been other results: In June there was the African Union Summit on Water and Sanitation in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, attended by 52 heads of state and government. The African member states unanimously adopted a declaration giving high priority to water and sanitation.

Fortunately, words are being translated into action with impressive results on the ground, he pointed out: "When I visited Ethiopia earlier this year, I learned that 1.3 million latrines had been built within 18 months in the country's Southern Nations province."

And this year the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation took up another, less tangible and so perhaps more difficult, challenge: bringing unmentionable subjects like toilets and feces out of the shadows and into the open.

The U.N. sanitation board "will continue to 'call a spade a spade' -- or perhaps I should say 'a toilet a toilet.' And, ladies and gentlemen, I hope I can inspire you to do the same," he told delegates, "because there is still a long way to go."

A Global Sanitation Fund was launched this year by the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

"Six months down the line we can conclude without doubt that [the U.N.'s] efforts are bearing fruit," he said. "We are on the right path and support around the world is increasing. But that does not mean we have achieved all our goals. In fact, we have only just begun."

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