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**********************MONROVIA, Liberia,** January 30, 2013/ *– *Nobel
Peace Prize winner and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued a
stark warning in Monrovia on Wednesday to the UN Secretary-General’s
High-level Panel that is meeting this week to address the future of
international poverty reduction efforts, noting that economic losses due to
poor water and sanitation access globally are costing $260 billion (US)
every year.
The President, one of three co-Chairs of the UN Secretary-General’s
High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda,
stated on Wednesday (30 January 2013) that:
*“$260 billion in economic losses annually is directly linked to inadequate
water supply and sanitation around the world. We must take this issue more
seriously.”** *
*“All too often access to adequate sanitation in particular is seen as an
outcome of development, rather than a driver of economic development and
poverty reduction. South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore in the 1960’s and
1970’s demonstrated the potential for boosting economic development by
addressing sanitation.”*
*The President’s comments came during the High-level Panel meeting in
Monrovia which was broadly focused on the theme of “economic
transformation”.*
The Panel, which includes 27 leaders from government, the private sector
and civil society, is co-chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Sirleaf. The
group is tasked with producing a report in May to the Secretary-General
containing recommendations for a development agenda for the world.
The current Millennium Development Goal targets on water and sanitation
have had starkly differing levels of progress and political and financial
support. While the drinking water target – to halve the proportion of
people worldwide without access to safe drinking water – was met five years
early in 2010, the sanitation goal is decades off track. Progress in
Africa specifically is even worse with sub-Saharan Africa expected to meet
this goal a century and a half late.
Girish Menon, Director of International Programmes for the international
water and sanitation charity WaterAid, said:
*“The High Level Panel must grasp this unique opportunity to put together
an ambitious vision for eradicating poverty in our time. For this
aspiration to be realised there must be a central focus on achieving
universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene.”** *
*“International efforts on the existing Millennium Development Goals have
shown us that to succeed in areas like education, child health and gender
equality progress on access to water, sanitation and hygiene is crucial.
Integrating these approaches will be the key to success.”*
Liberia is in many ways typical of sub-Saharan African countries, with
access to safe drinking water at 73% of the population, far exceeding
levels of access to decent sanitation, at only 18%. The average across
sub-Saharan Africa to these services sits at 61% for water but just 30% for
sanitation.
President Sirleaf, who is also Goodwill Ambassador for water, sanitation
and hygiene in Africa, also stated:
*“Without more progress in providing access to safe water and effective
sanitation, children will continue to miss school, health costs will
continue to be a drag on national economies, adults will continue to miss
work, and women and girls, and it’s almost always women and girls, will
continue to spend hours every day fetching water, typically from dirty
sources.”*
According to a 2012 WaterAid report, the lives of 2.5 million people around
the world would be saved every year if everybody had access to safe water
and adequate sanitation.
The international charity has also highlighted that if governments meet the
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve the proportion of their
population without sanitation by 2015 the lives of 400,000 children under
the age of five will be saved around the world – over 100,000 in Nigeria,
and 66,000 in India alone.
WaterAid will be in Liberia all week, with spokespeople available for
interview on the post-MDG agenda.****
WaterAid Spokespeople in Liberia:
• Girish Menon, Director of International Programmes and Deputy
Chief Executive****
• Nelson Gomondo, Pan-Africa Programme Manager – Southern Africa***
*
• Hannah Ellis, International Campaigns Manager****
• Willice Onyango, WaterAid Youth Ambassador and chair,
International Youth Council, Kenya
WaterAid Spokespeople in London:
• Margaret Batty, Director of Policy and Campaigns****
• Tom Slaymaker, Senior Policy Analyst (Governance), and Deputy
Head of Policy****
• Fleur Anderson, Head of Campaigns