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azzuri
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We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water......see - http://www.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0,,1725920,00.html
| Quote: | We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water
The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year
Kevin Watkins
Wednesday March 8, 2006
The Guardian
Nobody reading this started the day with a two-mile hike to collect the family's daily water supply from a stream. None of us will suffer the indignity of using a plastic bag for a toilet. And our children don't die for want of a glass of clean water.
Perhaps that's why we have such a narrow view of what constitutes a "water crisis". Dwindling reservoirs and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often, and we've got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, there could be a hosepipe ban in the home counties.
In the next 24 hours diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation will claim the lives of 4,000 children. The annual death toll from this relentless catastrophe is larger than the population of Birmingham. Dirty water poses a greater threat to human life than war or terrorism. Yet it barely registers on the radar of public debate in rich countries.
At any one time, close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. These rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods, and undermine education potential. The statistics behind the crisis make for grim reading. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, 2.6 billion people still have no access to even the most rudimentary latrine. Over one billion have no source of drinking water.
In Britain, the average person uses 160 litres of clean water each day. In rural Mozambique or Ethiopia, people use what women and young girls can carry back from rivers and lakes: around 5-10 litres a day for each person. The iconic image of a woman carrying water belies a more brutal reality. You try carrying a 20-litre bucket of water for four miles in the baking sun.
The global sanitation gap is even more overwhelming. Those who have seen The Constant Gardner will recall the Kenyan slum visited by Rachel Weisz's character. The slum was Kibera. With a population of 750,000 it is one of the largest informal settlements in Africa and accounts for one-quarter of people living in Nairobi. Over 90% lack access to a latrine, giving rise to a phenomenon that didn't figure in the movie: the "flying toilet". Lacking any alternative, people defecate into plastic bags that are thrown into the street, with terrifying consequences for public health.
Kibera is a microcosm of what happens across the developing world. Rapid urbanisation and a crumbling water and sanitation infrastructure in cities like Jakarta, Manila and Lagos have left millions of poor people in overcrowded slums facing a constant threat from water infected with human excrement.
To add insult, the poor pay more for their water than the rich. In Kibera, you pay three times more than in Manhattan or London, and 10 times more than in high-income suburbs of Nairobi. Similar patterns are repeated across the cities of the developing world. The reason: water utilities pump subsidised water to well-off customers, but seldom reach the poor. Most slum dwellers face a choice between buying water from high-cost private traders, or taking a long trip to the nearest stream.
Meeting the UN's millennium development goal of halving the proportion of the world without access to clean water would cost $4bn a year for 10 years. That amount represents just a month's spending on bottled mineral water in Europe and the US. For less than people in rich countries now spend on a designer product that produces no tangible health gains, we would roll back one of the main causes of preventable childhood death. And for every $1 invested, another $3-$4 would be generated through savings on health spending and increased productivity. So why have rich countries been cutting aid to water and sanitation for the last five years?
Water is not just a commodity. It is a source of life, dignity and equality of opportunity. That is why human need, regardless of ability to pay, must be the guiding regulatory principle, and why governments bear ultimate responsibility for provision. South Africa has shown the way by requiring all providers, public and private, to supply a minimum amount of water free of charge. In Senegal and Manila too, new partnerships are extending access for the poor through small surcharges on the wealthy. Redistribution may be out of fashion, but converting public water subsidies for the rich into public investments for the poor accelerates progress and overcomes the glaring equity gaps that scar many countries.
In Britain, the water and sanitation crisis of the 19th century gave rise to powerful political coalitions that brought together municipalities, industrialists and social reformers. Civic duty, economic self-interest and morality combined to make water and sanitation a national cause. Today, new social movements and partnerships between governments and civil society are beginning to make inroads into the crisis. But we also need global leadership in rich countries that pushes water and sanitation higher up the aid agenda.
Perhaps in Britain we should take fewer baths and be sparing in our use of hosepipes. But none of us should tolerate a world in which over 1 million children are, in a perversely literal sense, dying for a glass of water and a toilet. |
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azzuri
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see - http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,,1725978,00.html
| Quote: | World warned it must do better as 20m face threat of famine in Africa
Appeal for help as drought reaches crisis point
Film raised awareness but aid too slow to arrive
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday March 8, 2006
The Guardian
More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of famine in conditions which the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) described yesterday as the worst in his experience.
James Morris, executive director of the WFP, the UN's food aid organisation, was in London yesterday to warn the international community that millions of people in Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Tanzania are now at risk because of drought.
The rain cycle in the area has decreased steadily over the last decade, and the WFP is running out of food for 3.5 million Kenyans who need emergency assistance, he said, warning that the death toll would rise if sufficient funds were not forthcoming from donor countries. "These people have run out of food and water," he said of northeastern Kenya, which he has just visited. "Unless we reach them all very soon we will run out of time."
The recent Kenyan corruption scandals should not affect aid, he added. "We don't do our work through governments, we do it through NGOs or do it ourselves ... Children have nothing to do with corruption, they're often the victims of it."
While all donations in the form of food and grain are welcome, Mr Morris said money from donors remains essential as it gives the WFP flexibility to buy locally. "We could eliminate hunger for children in Africa for £3bn," he said.
The director acknowledged that aid often only appears in times of catastrophe. "The whole world needs to do a better job on early-warning systems," he said. "The world never responds as quickly as would perfectly be the case."
One of the primary challenges, he said, is catching world attention. The film The Constant Gardener, for which actress Rachel Weisz just won an Oscar, helped create awareness of the problem and the WFP's work. "People pay a heck of a lot more attention to her when she talks than they would to me," the director said. "She has been a very strong advocate for the work of the WFP but more importantly for issues of the world's hungry poor."
Mr Morris said the film All the Invisible Children, seven vignettes on children under threat by directors including Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica, John Woo and Spike Lee, also had had a major effect.
Donors tend to respond most swiftly when a crisis is covered by the media. "When the BBC shows the tough footage of children starving, the world responds," he said. "Those crises that get the most attention in the media have the best chance of being funded." While an estimated 25,000 people died of hunger every day, he said, "90% of them will not die in a high-profile situation."
One new development in the field was the signing of the world's first insurance contract for humanitarian emergency with the AXA Re insurance company. Payment is triggered if rainfall is significantly below the average.
Half of the countries affected by hunger, he said, belong to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and one issue to be addressed is the role of these nations, from whom there is a shortage of donations. "We need more support from the Gulf region. They do much of their work on a bilateral basis, government-to-government. My own view is that humanitarian support is much more appropriately done through the international, multilateral institutions." Saudi Arabia has not yet donated in the current crisis, and while the WFP needs to raise 10% of its budget from the Middle East, he said currently less than 1% is forthcoming.
Somalia faces very serious logistical problems for food delivery both because of the insecurity in the country and in the wake of attacks by pirates on aid vessels. Mr Morris said nearly 1.5m Somalians are in need of emergency food aid but their situation is perilous because access is so difficult. "We urge leaders and rival militia to set aside their differences and guarantee safe passage to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe," he said.
The UK is among the most generous donors, he said. "[Secretary of state for international development] Hilary Benn has been remarkable in his personal commitment. He is the single most aggressive leader in the world trying to make the humanitarian community better." |
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SLG
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| Quote: | | Hilary Benn has been remarkable in his personal commitment. He is the single most aggressive leader in the world trying to make the humanitarian community better." |
That may be the case but it's clearly not enough. I thought Brown and Blair were going to save Africa? Or at least use their huge influence to get the international community to act.
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Morph
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why not pour the massive millitary budgets towards sorting out this problem? i know this isn't an ideal world but surely if America sees itself as somekind of world leader it should lead in the aid of africa and not into war, also even from a very George bush point of view eg, making money, a strong africa would give him more trading options
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azzuri
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.....a strong Africa would devalue the dollar, as would a strong Iran.
It's no surprise Bush is making big noises about Iran at the moment - it could cripple the strength of the dollar if they start trading barrels of oil in Euros as is their plan.
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Morph
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what is the reasoning behind the change? i take it theres more in it for Iran to trade in Euros?
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azzuri
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......well not really that much, other than devaluing the dollar and shafting America.
It means that America doesn't have control over their oil market as it would do otherwise.
It will be good for the Eurozone - if Iran sets a precedent you could see other countries doing the same in the future. I highly doubt the USA could do anything if Iran did start trading oil in Euros as the EU would back it's move no doubt.
This almost looks like the world starting to split into 3 economic 'blocs'. Those tied to the Dollar and the Euro and others tied to the Yen.
Make no doubt about it - this could be devastating for the American economy if it happens.
Funny that George is making such big noises about Iran just now. The last guy who tried to trade oil in Euros instead of dollars was none other than Saddham Hussein in 2000.
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Morph
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how does Sterling tie into this? Euros or Dollars?
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azzuri
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what do you mean?
no one trades oil in sterling. dollars has always been the global benchmark.
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Morph
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yes, but does britain continue to trade in dollars or has it thought about Euros? Just a question doesnt have much to do with this though
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azzuri
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No Britain trades in dollars - currently no one trades oil in Euros.
That's why there could be such an uproar.
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