WaterAid Urges World Leaders to Act Now on Sanitation, Water

An estimated 2.5 million lives could be saved each year if governments committed to providing access to safe water to drink and improved sanitation for all, according to a new report by InterAction member WaterAid America.

The report, “Saving Lives,” highlights the need to improve water and sanitation conditions which are critical to public health and economic development. The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target set for sanitation was to reduce by half the number of people without access to an “improved toilet” by 2015.  If world leaders kept their promises to support the 57 countries most off track to meet their MDG targets for sanitation by 2015, the lives of at least 400,000 children under the age of five would be saved, the report estimated.

The WaterAid publication comes as ministers from around the word gather in Washington D.C. on April 20 for a meeting of Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), a partnership of developing country governments, donors and civil society organizations. The meeting is being held on the sidelines of the World Bank’s Spring Meetings and will look at solutions to the water and sanitation crisis. 

For more information, read the press release in WaterAid America’s newsroom.