Sanitation declared a right in South Asia

A silent candlelight vigil was held for the millions of children who have needlessly lost their lives across the region.

Credit: Freshwater Action Network South Asia

WaterAid welcomes South Asian governments' unprecedented recognition of access to sanitation and safe drinking water as a basic right.

At the third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) in Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's opening words, 'good sanitation should be the birthright of every citizen in South Asia' made it into the official declaration and are now a national priority.

One million children from South Asia died from preventable diarrhoeal diseases since the last conference two years ago. Around one billion people still live without adequate sanitation in the region with 778 million people still practising open defecation.

James Wicken, Head of Policy and Advocacy WaterAid Australia said:

"It is fantastic that South Asian governments recognised access to sanitation as a basic right. We now urgently need action to back this up. This is a region where governments are sending spaceships to the moon and yet 800 million people shit in the open every day. We don't want to reconvene in 2010 to lament the needless deaths of another million children."