DAVID ADAMS reports…
About 780 million people around the world still lack access to safe water supplies and 2.5 billion people don’t have “decent sanitation”, according to figures released by groups promoting World Toilet Day.
Micah Challenge Australia – part of a global network of Christian organisations aimed at lobbying governments to meet the Millennium Development Goals – says World Toilet Day – 19th November – is a good opportunity to call on governments all around the world to increase the amount of overseas aid allocated to providing adequate sanitation and safe water for the world’s poorest people.
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TOILET ON TOUR: MP Michelle Rowland was among those who visited the Giant Toilet when it arrived at Lalor Park in Sydney as part of Micah Challenge’s national tour aimed at raising awareness of sanitation issues. TOILET FACTS: • 1 in 3 people in the world do not have a toilet. • 2.5 billion people do not have a clean toilet Most of these people live in rural areas of China and India • 1.1 billion people defecate in the open. • 780 million people don’t have access to clean water. Source: UNICEF |
“World Toilet Day is a good time to focus our attention to the 780 million people around the world who lack access to safe water and the 2.5 billion people who do not have decent sanitation,” says John Beckett, national coordinator of Micah Challenge Australia.
Noting that the Australian Government has committed to help halve the proportion of people in the world who don’t have safe water and basic sanitation by 2015, Mr Beckett says that while the clean water target is on track to be achieved by 2015, the sanitation target is “significantly lagging behind”.
“With around 3,000 children dying every day from preventable causes related to dirty water, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene, we’re calling on our government to invest more of Australia’s aid budget into water, sanitation and hygiene,” he says.
Meanwhile, UNICEF says that poor sanitation, water and hygiene is having a serious impact on the lives of children with 1.5 million dying every year from diarrhoea.
According to data from the organisation, one in three people around the world do not have a toilet, 2.5 billion people do not have a clean toilet and 1.1 billion people defecate in the open.
Micah Challenge has been raising awareness of the global sanitation crisis in a national Toilet Tour, conducted in partnership with WaterAid Australia over the past six months. As part of the tour, a giant two-metre high toilet has been the talking point at more than 35 community led ‘Give Poverty the Flush’ events.
Mr Beckett says the toilet tour is a light-hearted way to raise awareness of the issue and will culminate on World Water Day, held on 22nd March next year, when a petition of signatures calling for more funds to be allocated to the issue will be presented to Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
~ www.worldtoiletday.org
~ www.micahchallenge.org.au
~ http://bit.ly/toilettourpetition
~ www.unicef.org.au
