News

A candlelit vigil in Delhi commemorated the one million children who had died since 2006.

Credit: Freshwater Action Network – South Asia

Sanitation is declared a right in South Asia

Last November WaterAid welcomed South Asian governments' recognition of access to sanitation and safe drinking water as a basic right.

At the third South Asian Conference on Sanitation 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.

One million children from South Asia died from preventable diarrhoeal diseases since the
last conference was held two years previously. But now sanitation is a legislative priority
in each of the countries represented at the conference: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in a bid to improve the lives of the one billion people living in the region without adequate sanitation.

Now wash your hands!

Seven WaterAid country programmes joined over 40 nations across the world to mark the first Global Handwashing Day on 15 October.

From Burkina Faso to Pakistan, WaterAid was involved in ceremonies, quizzes and technology demonstrations to
highlight the fact that handwashing with soap can reduce deaths by diarrhoeal diseases
by up to 47%.

H2O Reporters

Credit: WaterAid

Three young film makers, Alexandra Lindsay, Angharad Thomas and Zartash Javaid, travelled to Tanzania to witness the problems facing communities living without access to safe water.

Each won the trip by entering a film to our H2O reporter competition showing what water and sanitation meant to them. The girls were shocked by what they saw in Mchemwa village as fifteen year old Zartash (pictured) explains:

"I was with a
woman who had to climb down a well with a baby on her back. I think it was about two or three metres deep and so narrow and dark. I could see how dirty it was and was taken aback. It was really sad." 

The girls spoke at our Annual Supporters' Meeting in October and explained how happy theywere that construction of new water points has begun in Mchemwa so that the community will have safe, clean water soon.