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MaximsNewsWATER
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Secretary-General
Meets Prince of Netherlands, Chairperson of the UN Secretary-General's
Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, for the Launch of the UN International
Year of Sanitation: 21/11/2007
(MaximsNews Network)
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange of the
Netherlands and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General on
Water and Sanitation. 21 November 2007. UN Photo# 161842/Mark Garten
UN:
INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SANITATION LAUNCHED TODAY FOR 2.6 BILLION PEOPLE
WITHOUT ADEQUATE FACILITIES: 21/11/2007
(MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 21 November 2007 --
Today, the U.N. launched the International Year of
Sanitation in order to accelerate progress for the 2.6 billion people around the
world who do not enjoy the basic right to proper sanitation facilities.
Speaking at the
official
launch at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said
access to sanitation is one of the most “overlooked, and underserved human
needs.”
International efforts
to deliver on this basic right have proved “lacklustre,” with an estimated
42,000 people dying every week from diseases related to low water quality and an
absence of adequate sanitation, he stated. “This situation is unacceptable.”
The Secretary-General
stressed that investments in sanitation are among of the most important
allocations any nation can make. “For every dollar spent on improving
sanitation it is estimated that at least nine dollars are saved in costs related
to health, education, and social and economic development.”
He called on the
international community, national governments and civil society to take up the
cause of sanitation with “unprecedented vigour” to accelerate progress
towards the global target to reduce by half the proportion of people without
access to basic sanitation by 2015 – one of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) set at a 200 UN summit.
According to the UN,
although more than 1.2 billion people worldwide have gained access to improved
sanitation between 1990 and 2004, an estimated 2.6 billion people – including
980 million children – still lag behind.
If current trends
continue, there will be 2.4 billion people without basic sanitation in 2015,
with children continuing to pay the price in lost lives, missed schooling, in
disease, malnutrition and poverty.
The International Year
will include major regional conferences on sanitation, including one focusing on
school sanitation. It will also encourage public and private partnerships to
bring real changes for the billions who bear the brunt of the crisis.
“Today, we go from a
stage of planning to one of implementation,” said His Royal Highness Prince
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Chairperson of the UN Secretary-General's
Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. “It is vital that progress is
accelerated if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goal target on
sanitation, and indeed the other development goals.”
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
Water and
Sanitation
~~~~~
MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the
U.N., provides commentary and analysis from
leading world figures: King Abdullah II
(Jordan), HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
(Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb.
Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger,
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Shashi Tharoor, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Noeleen Heyzer,
Masood Haider, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
Jeffrey Laurenti, Rodney D. Smith, Ashley
Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
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