World Water Day 2008
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Sewage runs through the street. In India, at the Bhat Camp, a partnership of local NGO’s, other private sector partners, municipal governments, and other public sector institutions, interventions provide support to improve neonatal health, immunization, diarrheal disease control, and nutrition in a population of 125,000 in the most vulnerable slums of the city of Indore. Source: USAID/Chris Thomas |
More than 1 billion people worldwide currently live without potable water, and an estimated 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, do not have access to basic sanitation facilities. About 1.6 million children under age 5 died last year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene in developing countries, and millions more were put at significant risk of exposure to waterborne infections, such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Contaminated drinking water is also a threat to people living with HIV/AIDS.
USAID's Safe Water and Hygiene Improvement Efforts
It is estimated that up to two-thirds of all the incidents of diarrhea in children could be avoided through readily available and inexpensive hygiene improvement interventions. USAID’s behavior-centered approach to hygiene and sanitation is described by the Hygiene Improvement Framework (HIF). The key underlying principle for the HIF is that successful diarrhea prevention activities require intervention in three areas: access to hardware (e.g., water supply and sanitation systems, household hygiene products); hygiene promotion; and the overall environment in which hygiene improvement programs take place (policy, capacity building, partnerships, financing, and community participation). It has been well documented that promotion of three key hygiene practices – safe feces disposal, handwashing with soap, and household treatment and safe storage of water at the point of use – can each result in a 30 to 40 percent reduction in the risk of diarrheal disease.
Household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) are important components of USAID’s health-focused hygiene improvement efforts. HWTS can lead to dramatic improvements in drinking water quality and reductions in diarrheal disease and make an immediate difference in the lives of those who rely on water from polluted rivers, lakes, and, in some cases, unsafe wells or piped water supplies. These measures complement community and municipal water supply infrastructure programs by providing immediate access to safe water. Several low-cost options for ensuring safe drinking water at the household or other point of use are available, including chlorination, filtration, solar and UV lamp disinfection, and combined methods such as Procter and Gamble’s PUR sachets. USAID has programs promoting household chlorination in more than 13 countries. These inexpensive and easy-to-use solutions to the problem of contaminated water can be deployed and adopted rapidly. Read more about USAID's safe drinking water partnerships [PDF, 586KB].
International Year of Sanitation 2008
USAID joins the global community to support the United Nations-declared International Year of Sanitation (IYS) 2008 to accelerate progress for the 2.6 billion people worldwide who are without proper sanitation facilities. Imagine life without a toilet. No toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere. This is the daily reality for 40 percent of the world’s population. USAID’s sanitation agenda includes activities that generate demand for improved sanitation while simultaneously working with government and the private sector to produce and market the appropriate sanitation products. On March 22, USAID renews its commitment to increased access to water and sanitation for those in need.
Additional Information
- Best Practices in Social Marketing Safe Water Solution for Household Water Treatment [PDF, 1.1MB]
This publication examines lessons and best practices from Population Services International (PSI) field programs in 18 countries over the past eight years. This paper synthesizes lessons learned, best practices, successes, and challenges of social marketing point-of-use safe water solutions, and discusses how these lessons may be applied to planning safe water treatment programs around the globe to reduce diarrheal disease in vulnerable populations.
- United Nations World Water Day 2008 Web site
The UN marked World Water Day on March 22, highlighting the need for better management of the precious and increasingly threatened resource.
- International Year of Sanitation 2008 Web site
The International Year of Sanitation is calling for urgent action for the more than 40 percent of the world’s population who continue to live without improved sanitation.
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