The year 2008 has been declared the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 in conjunction with the Water for Life Decade

Water for Life Decade

THE INTERNATIONAL DECADE FOR ACTION ‘WATER FOR LIFE’, 2005-2015The United Nations General Assembly, in December 2003, proclaimed the years 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’...

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The United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly

For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

 has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

. Worldwide there are roughly 2.6 billion people who do not have access to basic sanitation today. The goal of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation is to help raise awareness of this crisis and hopefully accelerate progress towards reaching the UN’s Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

 (MDG’s) and cutting the number of people without access to basic sanitation in half by the year 2015.

History

The spotlight on sanitation as a major issue worldwide began in 2000 with the United Nations adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, which aim at diminishing poverty and increasing health and the general well-being of all people. Further development of these goals was discussed in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, with the inclusion of access to sanitation as fundamental to achieving all goals surrounding bringing an end to poverty. The Johannesburg Plan of Action established the objective of halving the number of people without access to basic sanitation by the year 2015.

Objectives

The progress towards achieving the sanitation MDG has been slow and varied in different parts of the world. The main objective in declaring 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation is to help get the sanitation MDG back on track for achieving the goal of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. Accomplishing this goal will require cooperation between different UN agencies, especially UNDESA and UNICEF, as well as government agencies, NGO’s, private companies, and academic circles.

Quotes

• “Our work has shown that sanitation does improve health - simple achievable interventions reduce for example diarrhoeal disease by 391 million cases per year.” WHO. 2007

• “Basic knowledge and understanding about the connection between hygiene and disease can save lives. The simple act of washing hands with soap (or ash, or earth) and water after going to the toilet is estimated to reduce diarrhoeal disease by a third.” - WHO/UNICEF 2000 Human Waste Report. 2002

• “To reach the sanitation target means providing services to an additional 450,000 people a day until 2015. This calls for almost a doubling of the current efforts. On current trends, the world will miss the sanitation target by more than half a billion people.” WaterAid

• “Poor sanitation and water supplies are the engines that drive cycles of disease, poverty and powerlessness in developing nations. Action to improve sanitation is an important step to enable the poorest people to escape poverty.” - WaterAid and Tearfund. Human Waste Report 2002

• "It is clear that investing in sanitation generates massive returns on health, the environment and the economy. In fact, the overwhelming evidence is that there is no single development policy intervention that brings greater public health returns than investment in basic sanitation and hygiene practices. The UN estimates that for every $1 spent on sanitation, the return on investment is around $9." -WaterAid. End Water Poverty event welcomes the UN International Year of Sanitation. 2008

External links

• Lifewater Website : http://www.lifewater.org/
• UN- International Day of Sanitation Website : http://esa.un.org/iys/
• UNICEF – IYS website : http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_3951.html
• WHO – IYS website : http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/iys/about/en/
• UN –Water : http://www.unwater.org/
• WaterAid Website : http://www.wateraid.org/
• http://esa.un.org/iys/
• http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/iys.html