Honour your commitments now

Read all about it! Dipesha delivers Daily Diarrhoea to 10 Downing Street

Credit: WaterAid

18 August 2010

WaterAid marked the new Government's 100th day in power by handing in a petition to Downing Street of over 9,000 signatures demanding people stop dying for the toilet.

To remind Prime Minister David Cameron to prioritise funding for sanitation and water, WaterAid supporter Dipesha Sharma went to 10 Downing Street this morning to hand in the petition in person.

And to further draw attention to our petition, a one-off copy of our satirical newspaper Daily Diarrhoea was also delivered.

Daily Diarrhoea features a humorous yet serious piece, Killer on the loos, which highlights the fact that 4,000 children who are dying every day from easily preventable diarrhoeal diseases.

Other stories focus on the amount of public support for the UK Government to address this crisis, with the main article forming a list of almost 10,000 people who have supported WaterAid's 100 Days campaign.
 
WaterAid has had an incredible response to this campaign. Not only have over 9,000 people signed a petition to David Cameron, a further 750 have also written to their MP asking for their help.

This support is essential to keep up the pressure on the Government to address the sanitation and water crisis and massively reduce the number of children who die each year from diarrhoeal diseases.
 
Our voices have already been heard by David Cameron, who wrote to WaterAid stressing that, "the UK has a moral responsibility to address improving opportunities for the poorest people in the world" and that the Government has "placed a high priority on water and sanitation".
 
Rhian Lewis, WaterAid's Campaigns Officer, added: " A huge thank you to everyone who signed the petition and made their voice heard. The new Government has clearly heard our calls and made strong commitments to tackle the sanitation and water crisis. But with diarrhoea now the biggest killer of children in Africa, the time to honours these commitments is now."

UN Member States committed to halving the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015 as part of the Millennium Development Goals. However, the world is 30 years off its global target and 200 years off-target for sub-Saharan Africa.

The upcoming UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in September provides a critical opportunity for the UK Government to press for political prioritisation of the crisis and ensure that this target gets back on track.