On 21 November 2007, the United Nations officially launched the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities.

“Access to sanitation is deeply connected to virtually all the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those involving the environment, education, gender equality and the reduction of child mortality and poverty,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

An annual investment of about US$ 10 billion (EUR 6.85 billion) is needed to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without basic sanitation by 2015. If sustained, the same investment could achieve basic sanitation for the entire world within one or two decades. However, if current trends continue, there will still be 2.4 billion people without basic sanitation in 2015.

Motivated by the IYS 2008, a coalition of more than 50 prominent multi and bilateral organisations, NGOs, businesses, governmental and research institutions active in the field of sustainable sanitation formed the "Sustainable Sanitation Alliance" or SuSanA and drew up a joint road map for IYS 2008 [1].

On 19 November 2007, World Toilet Day, WaterAid launched the 2nd edition of “The State of the World's Toilets” [2], which ranks the worst countries in the world for sanitation provision. Aghanistan is the worst country in terms of percentage of the population without access (92%), while China is the country with the most people without access (732 million).

The End Water Poverty coalition has produced a film “The Stink goes on”, to show how political action can bring about improvements in sanitation around the world. The film is linked to an online petition urging G8 leaders to address the crisis in sanitation and water at their next summit in Japan.

[1] Joint Road Map for the Promotion of Sustainable Sanitation within the International Year of Sanitation 2008

[2] WaterAid (2007). The State of the World's Toilets. Report 2. PDF file (491 Kb)

Web sites: International Year of Sanitation ; SuSanA - Sustainable Sanitation Alliance ; End Water Poverty

Source: UNICEF, 21 Nov 2007

Tags: information and communication, on-site sanitation, sanitation