WaterAid at Stockholm World Water Week 2009

17 August 2009

WaterAid will join 2,500 experts at the Stockholm World Water Week, to call for urgent attention to be given to the water and sanitation crisis and to push for inspired global leadership to address this.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 800 million people do not have access to safe water, while a staggering 2.4 billion do not have a safe place to go to the toilet.

"The lack of safe water and good hygiene is holding back human and economic development – the WHO estimates that every year, 1.4 million children die from diarrhoea directly caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, and hundreds of millions of children miss school as a result of being ill," said WaterAid Chief Executive Barbara Frost. "The current response of the international community is inadequate."

WaterAid has been calling for governments to resolve this crisis by implementing a Global Framework for Action – a comprehensive action plan to ensure that water and sanitation are prioritised by governments and donors alike – and are using the opportunity of the World Water Week to progress this further.

"The poor progress in sanitation is holding back achievement of the Millennium Development Goals - without greater attention to sanitation the health and education goals are unlikely to be realised" added Frost. "The international development community needs to target resources at the areas of critical failure. Unacceptable levels of poverty in the developing world will continue to exist if we do not implement a shared framework for action to highlight the desperate need for increased investment in this neglected sector."

A proposed global framework for action has been championed by UNICEF, the Dutch and the UK governments. However, there is still a long way to go, and more high level support is needed.

The Chair of WaterAid in Sweden, Jan Eliasson, former United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Darfur and one-time President of the United Nations General Assembly will echo the call for concerted global action in the week's opening address. Mr Eliasson's speech will also explore the links between water and other crises facing the world, including climate change, food insecurity and economic recession and will discuss how the UN system can address these challenges.

"The world is facing increasing crises, many of which are intensifying competing demands for water in most regions of the world. Already, billions of the world's poorest people are affected by the water and sanitation crisis. As a global community, we must ensure that concerted action is taken," said Mr Eliasson.

WaterAid will be leading sessions at World Water Week on Manual Scavenging, Small Town Planning and the Global Framework for Action.

For all media enquiries and interview requests please contact: Chloe Irvine (based in London): chloeirvine@wateraid.org +44 (0)75 14941577

Notes to editors

• In 1995 WaterAid was awarded the Stockholm World Water Week prize for delivering 'water and sanitation to the worlds poorest and most needy'.
• WaterAid is an international charity. Our mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. We work with partners and influence decisions makers to maximise our impact. We work in 17 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region.
• WaterAid's Chief Executive Barbara Frost is at the World Water Week and is available for interview