Digging the dirt

An installation of 167 spades, symbolising the number of children who die from diarrhoea in the developing world every hour, erected in Trafalgar Square.

Credit: David Parry/PA Wire/WaterAid

8 September 2010 

Trafalgar Square installation delivers a powerful message on sanitation on the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Declaration.

Ten years to the day since the UN Millennium Declaration was adopted (8 September 2000), international charity WaterAid today demonstrated how billions of people around the world are literally living and dying in their own faeces.

A dramatic installation of 167 spades standing upright in grass was erected in London's iconic Trafalgar Square to symbolise the number of children who die from diarrhoea in the developing world every hour. Watch the short film to find out more:

Every day some 4000 children die from diseases caused by poor sanitation and dirty water. A floral wreath spelt out the words Dig toilets not graves, the name of WaterAid's current campaign.

• Visit WaterAid's Dig toilets not graves website

WaterAid is calling on David Cameron and Nick Clegg to deliver on the hope and promises embodied in the initial Millennium Declaration at the upcoming UN Millennium Development Goals Summit which the Deputy Prime Minister will be attending in New York later this month.

• Visit our Millennium Development Goals summit hub 

Around the world there are 2.6 billion people living without sanitation.  At current rates of progress, the 2015 sanitation target to halve the proportion of people living without sanitation will not be met globally until 2049; in Sub-Saharan Africa not until the 23rd century, some 200 years late.  In Africa, diarrhoea is now the biggest killer of children under five.

To coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Declaration today, WaterAid has also published a damning new report – Ignored: Biggest Child Killer – The world is neglecting sanitation (PDF, 1.4MB) - containing hard-hitting testimonies from global health experts and people across the developing world whose health and education are in jeopardy because they have no clean safe place to go to the loo.

According to Margaret Batty, WaterAid's Director of Policy and Campaigns: "If sanitation continues to be ignored, this will have huge consequences for the health of the world’s poorest people.  Governments have a moral duty to deliver on the promises they made in 2000 to 'free the entire human race from want'. This simply won’t happen if the main underlying cause of child mortality is overlooked."

Ends

For all media enquiries including high res images and a copy of the report, please contact Ann Noon on 07787 414307/020 7793 4790, annnoon@wateraid.org or Chloe Irvine on 07514 941577, chloeirvine@wateraid.org  

Notes to editors:

WaterAid is an international charity working in 26 countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific whose mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities.

Dig Toilets Not Graves is WaterAid's latest campaign which calls on the UK Government to prioritise sanitation at the upcoming UN Millennium Development Goal Summit in New York and highlights the fact that deaths from diarrhoea can be prevented through simple and cost-effective measures such as building safe pit toilets.  www.digtoilets.org 

Ignored: Biggest Child Killer – The world is neglecting sanitation is available to download: Ignored: Biggest Child Killer – The world is neglecting sanitation (PDF, 1.4MB)