WUNRN
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsId=51304#.VZWpWnkw_mI
Despite Gains, 2.4 Billion People Worldwide Still Lack Basic Sanitation – UN Report
WUNRN NOTES THE SPECIFIC HEALTH & SAFETY CONCERNS FOR WOMEN & GIRLS
WITH SANITATION.
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_82419.html
Direct Link to Full 90-Page 2015 Report:
Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment
_________________________________________________________
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/sanitation-report-un_n_7700198.html
PHOTOS OF POOR WOMEN & INADEQUATE TOILET CONDITIONS
BANGLADESH
HAITI
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/development-goals-sanitation-idAFL8N0ZG2LW20150630
WORLD’S POOREST GAIN ACCESS TO WATER, BUT NOT TO TOILETS
By Magdalena Mis
LONDON,
June 30, 2015 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The poor's lack of access to
sanitation threatens to undermine the health benefits they have gained from
access to clean water, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
More than
90 percent of the world population has access to clean water, but 2.4 billion
people, most in rural areas, continue to live without toilets, the U.N.
children's agency UNICEF and World Health Organisation (WHO) reported.
"Until
everyone has access to adequate sanitation facilities, the quality
of water supplies will be undermined and too many people will continue to die
from waterborne and water-related diseases," said Maria Neira, head of
public health at WHO.
World
leaders are due to adopt a set of development objectives - known as the
Sustainable Development Goals - in September that include ending poverty,
reducing child mortality and tackling climate change, to replace the eight
expiring U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Some 2.6
billion people have gained access to clean water and 2.1 billion gained access
to toilets since 1990, but large gaps remain, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,
according to the report.
In
countries like Chad, Mali, Nigeria or Central African Republic less than half
the population has access to toilets, the report said.
Access to
clean water and adequate sanitation is critical in preventing 16 tropical
diseases that cause blindness, disfigurement and death and affect more than 1.4
billion people in 149 countries, the report said.
One
billion people worldwide have no choice but to defecate in the open, not into a
designated toilet. As a result, 161 million children are threatened with poor
health.
The goal
on halving the proportion of people without access to clean water was reached
ahead of the 2015 deadline, but sanitation goals remain out of reach. The U.N.
cites a lack of affordable facilities for the poor, as well as inadequate
efforts to change behavior.
"Though
we are glad to see overall progress, this data tells us that very little has
changed for the world's poorest people when it comes to access to water and
sanitation," Girish Menon, deputy chief executive of the global water
charity WaterAid, said in a statement.
To
eliminate open defecation by 2030, which is the new development deadline, the
current rate of progress will have to double, said the U.N.