PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND

The Ugandan Minister for Water and Norway’s International Development Minister sought to focus attention on the critical role of sanitation and clean water in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially those related to women and children, Vanessa Tobin, Chief for Water, Environment and Sanitation for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

Representing UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman, Ms. Tobin was briefing correspondents on the aims of a round-table discussion to be held this evening at UNICEF House under the theme “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa with a gender perspective”.  The round table will seek support for the Women Leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) initiative launched last year by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSCC).  Hilde F. Johnson, Norway’s Minister for International Development was present at the briefing, while Maria Mutagamba, Ugandan Minister of State for Water, was delayed and did not attend.

Ms. Tobin said that the group’s effort to focus attention on those issues was hardly a side event.  “ WASH is central to discussions taking place today because we are talking about practical ways to save lives.”  Millions of lives were lost annually owing to lack of sanitation.  Child survival in Africa, more than anywhere else, depended on the availability of clean water.  Every day, thousands of women and children in Africa were dying for lack of safe water.  The lack of clean water and basic sanitation added up to a development catastrophe for women.  “If we can’t provide something as fundamental as a safe water source and latrine, what hope can we have of providing more complex needs such as vaccines, and anti-HIV/AIDS measures?” she asked.

Ms. Johnson said that clean water and basic sanitation, issues that were particularly critical for women, had been ignored because they were not “sexy”, but providing clean water and basic sanitation was fundamental to achieving many of the Millennium Goals.  “We’re trying to mobilize other women leaders because we want this goal to come higher up on agendas and to mobilize decision makers to do more in this area.”  Some 1.1 billion people worldwide lacked safe water and twice that number were without basic sanitation.  In rural Africa, some 19 per cent of women spent more than an hour every day in search of clean water.  In addition, the absence of sanitation in schools kept girls from attending.  The aim of the WASH initiative was not to obtain new funds or create new organizations, but to mobilize action on the issue.  “We are the foremost advocates.  We will try to challenge decision makers to deliver more funds for existing structures.”

In response to a correspondent’s question, Ms. Tobin said that Ms. Mutagamba and Ms. Johnson were the most active supporters of the WASH goals.  Ministers from Madagascar and Senegal had also shown support for the initiative.

Ms. Johnson added that the initiatives suffered from a lack of leadership, especially on the issue of sanitation.  Some donors had taken the need for clean water seriously but no one had taken the lead with respect to sanitation.  France and the Netherlands had been leaders in water initiatives, she added.

Asked why clean water and sanitation were particularly women’s issues, Ms. Johnson said that in addition to the dangers of having to defecate in the open, girls who were menstruating suffered the additional embarrassment of lacking privacy.  The lack of proper sanitation for women in the workplace increased the impediments to the employment of women.  Because of women’s physical makeup, moreover, the lack of proper sanitation presented more of a health risk to them.  In Darfur, for example, women were frequently raped when they went to get water.

In general, Ms. Tobin added, sanitation and water were largely women’s issues because women were customarily most concerned with the hygiene of their children and in preparing food.

Asked what the group hoped to get from world leaders this week, Ms. Tobin said it sought to halve the number of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation and to get world leaders to focus on the importance of those basic issues.

Ms. Johnson added that the group hoped to impress upon world leaders the importance of clean water and basic sanitation so that they would, in turn, impress it upon their colleagues as well.  But the achievement of the group’s goals would not come until the world leaders went home.

Noting that sub-Saharan Africa was the only region that had missed targets on both water and sanitation, she said that was why efforts must be focused on Africa.  Only 58 per cent of Africans lived within a half-hour of reaching water and only 36 per cent had toilets.  The President of Senegal would attend the round-table discussion, showing that male leaders in Africa cared about those issues, she added.

Asked what donor funds for water and sanitation were currently used for, Ms. Johnson said the World Bank had put a lot of money into large- and small-scale water projects, but mostly of a high-technology nature rather than small community-based projects.  Norway had funded local projects involving the provision of toilets and the digging of wells using technologies that could be maintained by local people.  Experience showed that large-scale, high-tech projects did not work.  Using women’s groups to address those problems had been successful and UNICEF was involved in a number of such projects.

Ms. Tobin added that small-scale, community-based projects had proven to be more successful than larger ones, noting that about 30 per cent of water projects in Africa and about 20 per cent in Asia were not operating.

Asked what particular technology and projects had worked, Ms. Tobin said UNICEF had projects in 90 countries, including rain water harvesting systems in India and Bangladesh, gravity-flow water supply systems and small mechanized water systems involving the training of local mechanics.  The projects also involved the creation of local networks to provide spare parts to keep the systems operating.  Examples of simple projects included latrines with hygienic slabs that could be cleaned.

In response to a question about whether Malawi was an example of failed projects in that area, Ms. Tobin said there had been a need to replace many pipes in Malawi, but non-governmental organizations had succeeded in working with local governments to rebuild gravity-supply systems.Asked why sanitation had been neglected, Ms. Johnson replied that it was difficult to imagine walking through the streets carrying banners that said “We Want Toilets.”  Sanitation did not make a good campaign slogan.  Furthermore, it concerned women more than anyone else and women’s priorities were not given that much attention.

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For information media • not an official record