Water & Sanitation

The lack of clean water, basic sanitation and good hygiene are at crisis point in poorer countries. It's a situation that traps people in a vicious cycle of poverty because it spreads disease and infection, costs lives, increases infant mortality, deprives people of their dignity, forces women into strenuous labour (walking long distances carrying heavy vessels to collect water) and prevents children from going to school (due to illness and spending time collecting water). These are also basic human rights, yet:

• 900 million people live without access to safe water
• 2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitation
• 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal/gastrointestinal diseases.

If we are to make headway in the fight against poverty, water, sanitation and hygiene need to improve first and foremost.

Past forums on this topic:

If water is life, what do we do when it runs out?
Wednesday, 29 October 2008, Melbourne VIC
If water is life, what do we do when it runs out?

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