‘Huge global water, sanitation crisis’—says WaterAid
The International organization WaterAid is calling on governments around the world and other partners to increase funding for the water and sanitation sector.
“There is a huge global crisis. Today 783 million people in the developing world don’t have access to water and 2.5 billion people don’t have access to safe sanitation,” Mr. Girish Menon, the Director of international program at WaterAid.
In an interview with West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR), Menon said “that is one of the biggest reasons why there is a lot of ill health amongst the communities and a high number of deaths among children under the age of 5.”
In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 600 million people are said to be lacking access to adequate sanitation.
At the 10th Anniversary of the African Council of Ministers on Water (AMCOW) in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Liberia’s Minister of Public Works Samuel Kofi Woods put it bluntly by saying “we (Africa) are thirsty” in the midst of abundant water and rainfall in some places.
“This now requires individual and collective action to ensure that we follow through on these commitments and design a mechanism to monitor and evaluate implementation, We must therefore place the issue of water management and use on the agenda of regional institutions. The West African States (ECOWAS), Central Africa, South and North Africa must ensure that this is place on their agenda for action. Regional investment in water and sanitation will accelerate economic growth and produce a win-win effect,” the Liberian Public Works Minister said.
WaterAid exective Menon told WADR that because of the serious water and sanitation crisis, his group has embarked upon a global advocacy program to rally increased financing of the sector by both governments and the private sector.
WADR’s Kara Thioune holds an exclusive interview with Girish Menon, the WaterAid executive.
Click audio below to listen
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