World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	27 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE ON 'WASH' CAMPAIGN   The publication of "WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All): it's the Big Issue" was announced by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, which is dedicated to enhancing collaboration in the water supply and sanitation sector -- at a World Summit press conference this afternoon. The publication is part of the WASH campaign, which represents a concerted effort by members and partners of the Council to raise awareness and the political profile of sanitation, hygiene and safe water. The WASH campaign aims to raise the commitment of political and social leaders, and effect necessary behavioural changes through a combination of advocacy and communication efforts. Presented in a black folder, the "tear-out" publication contains fact sheets, campaign stickers and postcards, and its readers are asked to use those materials to proclaim the WASH message in their own "offices and departments, … meetings and conferences, … papers and publications". Briefing the press were Council Chairman, Richard Jolly; Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry of South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils; and Uganda's Minister of State for Water, Maria Mutagamba. In his introductory remarks, Mr. Jolly stressed an urgent need to spread the WASH message throughout the world, saying that some 6,000 people -- mostly children -- died every day as a result of preventable water-borne diseases, which resulted from inadequate sanitation and lack of proper hygiene. In China, India and Indonesia twice as many people died from diarrhoeal diseases as from HIV/AIDS. That was inexcusable in this day and age, when the simple act of washing hands after going to the toilet and before handling food could cut the death rates by almost half. In order to win the war on poverty and disease, the Summit needed to address the issues of water and sanitation, Ms. Mutagamba added. Sharing her country's experiences, she said that concrete strategies and targets had been developed there to improve water coverage. The Government had built sanitation facilities in schools, and conducted an education campaign in the country. As a result of its efforts, the rate of sanitation coverage had grown from 20 to over 50 per cent in the last 40 years. Following several water-borne epidemics, including a 1997 outbreak of cholera, the Government was determined not to react to crises, but to avoid them. In the near future, everybody in the country would have adequate water and sanitation. Mr. Kasrils said that the fact that water and sanitation had been included among the five major topics of discussion at the Summit testified to the fact that world was waking up to the importance of those issues. Clean water, sanitation and proper hygiene education constituted three vital elements in dealing with the problem of poverty and providing greater dignity for the people. Forced to deal with the legacy of apartheid, which had left millions of people without adequate water and sanitation, the Government of South Africa had launched a massive programme to provide clean potable water to rural people. In its efforts, it had relied on the involvement of all governmental departments, the private sector and civil society. "Sanitation is not a dirty word, he said. It ensures the dignity of people." Responding to a question regarding "fierce opposition from the United States and other developed countries" to setting particular targets in the field of sanitation, he said that the opposition was "not so fierce". The goals of overcoming water-borne diseases were so convincing that no one could actually oppose them. It was true that Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had been reluctant to accept the proposed target of halving the number of people without sanitation by half by 2015, but they seemed ready to accept the goal of dramatically improving sanitation. To several questions regarding the state of negotiations on the proposed goals, Mr. Kasrils said that brackets remained around the goal to halve by 2015 the number of 2.4 billion people without sanitation. It was impressive, however, that agreement had been reached on several specific actions in that regard. Asked if the proposed targets were too modest, Mr. Kasrils said that to halve the number of people without sanitation by 2015, it would be necessary to increase the rate of current progress threefold. Regarding the cost of implementing the proposals, he said that to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people without a safe water supply by 2015, an estimated $19 billion to $34 billion would be required. The exact amount needed to implement the proposed sanitation target would depend on the approach taken in each particular case. Based on the provision of basic sanitation for the poor, the Council estimated that an additional amount of some $12 billion would be needed. Press Conferences Summit News