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Australian Labour Party water pledge saves lives
World Vision and WaterAid applauded the Australian Labour Party's proposal to reallocate $300 million in aid funding by 2011 to water and sanitation projects in the Asia Pacific region and have called on the Government to match the proposal. More than a billion people worldwide do not have clean water and more than 2.6 billion do not have basic sanitation. In the Asia Pacific region alone a child dies every seven minutes from dehydration or poor sanitation. WaterAid Australia Chief Executive Adam Laidlaw said the ALP's pledge was a great boost towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve the number of people without water and sanitation by 2015. "Lack of water and sanitation is one of the biggest impediments to lifting the world's poor out of the stranglehold of poverty. "It is particularly pleasing that sanitation has been given a high priority by the ALP pledge since twice as many people lack sanitation but spending is usually only 10% of that spent on water," said Mr Laidlaw. World Vision's Chief Executive Tim Costello welcomed the ALP pledge for the Asia Pacific region where more than 100 million people live without safe drinking water and 185 million (nine times our population) do not have adequate sanitation. He said: "It doesn't take a lot to make a dramatic difference. About 20 litres of clean water per person per day is the difference between life and death for many people. Much less than the average Australian uses every day to flush the toilet. "This pledge would mean that Australia would be providing its fair share of sanitation and water funding and helping to build an effective coordinated international response for these most critical needs. "We have been calling for this for a long time. Everyone agrees on the importance of sanitation and water – we need both sides of politics to give it the support that is required. This is well within our capacity – all we need is political will." Media contacts
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