UN launched drive, Sustainable Sanitation: The Five-Year-Drive to 2015

The United Nations on 21 June 2011 launched a drive, Sustainable sanitation: The Five-Year-Drive to 2015 to accelerate progress towards the goal of halving the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation by 2015. The drive launched on 21 June was established by the General Assembly in a resolution adopted in December 2010 that called on Member States to redouble efforts to close the sanitation gap, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

The UN had recognised access to sanitation as a human right, a basic service required to live a normal life. However despite the recognition, some 2.6 billion people – or half the population in the developing world still lack access to improved sanitation.

Sanitation is an unpopular subject though it is an extremely sensitive issue. The UN resolution of December 2010 had called for an end to open defecation, the most dangerous sanitation practice for public health and one practised by over 1.1 billion people who have no access to facilities. Ending open defecation will require strong political commitment, a focused policy framework and reliable supply chains for both building and maintaining affordable latrines.

The UN pointed out that child under five are the most vulnerable to poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation, two of the major causes of diarrhoea. According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the disease kills at least 1.2 million children under five each year. Cases of diarrhoea in children under five can be reduced by a third simply by expanding the access of communities to sanitation.

The Prince of Orange, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who is Chairperson of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation emphasised that sanitation is vital for health, brings dignity, equality and safety, represents a good economic investment and sustains clean environments.