Launch of the International Year of Sanitation 2008
The UN General Assembly has declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation. The goal of the Year is to raise awareness and accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal target to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. The Year is being coordinated by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), working closely with a number of UN agencies and partners, including the Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) and the UN-Water Task Force on Sanitation.
Headquarters event: The International Year will be launched at UN Headquarters on Wednesday, 21 November. Participants will include: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; His Royal Highness Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (Prince of Orange), Chairman of the UNSGAB ; Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang; UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, singer Angelique Kidjo and others. UNICEF has been actively involved in the launch event, and UNICEF field offices may also have been alerted to this.
International Year of SanitationCalendar of Events 2008
AfricaSan+5, Durban, South AfricaFeb 18-20, 2008 (dates to be confirmed)
Sanitation and Hygiene Week Mar 15-21, 2008, Water Supply & Sanitation
Collaborative Council
World Water Day, Sanitation as the theme for 2008
Mar 22, 2008
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16)May 5-16, 2008,
UN Headquarters, New York Expert group meeting on gender disaggregated data
(dates to be determined) Workshop on gender inclusive sanitation-education (dates
to be determined)
EXPO Zaragoza 2008 , Water for Sustainable DevelopmentJun 11 - Sep 14, 2008, Zaragoza, Spain Sanitation technologies to be highlighted by IYS in thematic
pavilion of the UN at Zaragoza Expo Inter-regional conference on sanitation in Zaragoza
August 2008, Zaragoza, Spain
World Water Week: "Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World" Aug 17-23, 2008, Stockholm, Sweden
World Toilet Summit & Expo 2008 and World Sanitation Fund Forum
Nov 04-06, 2008, Macau
December 2008 - Joint UN publication summarizing events and outcomes of IYS and Preparation of SG report for the 64th session of the GA ________________________________________________________________ THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S MESSAGE ON THE LAUNCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SANITATION21 November 2007
Access to sanitation is one of the most overlooked, and underserved human needs. It is nothing less than a fundamental issue of human dignity and human rights. It is a cornerstone of economic development and environmental protection. And it is deeply connected to virtually all the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those involving the environment, education, gender equality and the reduction of child mortality and poverty.
International efforts to deliver on this basic right have proved lacklustre. Today, more than 2 billion people around the world lack access to basic sanitation services. Some 90 percent of sewage in developing countries is discharged into water courses without treatment, often polluting the usable water supply. An estimated 42,000 people die every week from diseases related to low water quality and an absence of adequate sanitation. This situation is unacceptable.
This International Year of Sanitation, declared by the United Nations General Assembly, can help jumpstart global initiatives. The coming 12 months provide us with a platform to prioritize sanitation on the international community’s agenda, and to energize efforts towards the MDG target of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Investments in sanitation are among of the most important allocations any nation can make: for every dollar spent on improving sanitation it is estimated that at least three dollars, and as much as 34 dollars, are saved in costs related to health, education, and social and economic development.
At the launch of this International Year, I call on the international community, national governments and civil society to take up the cause of sanitation with unprecedented vigour. Let us make this a year of global achievement, one that generates real, positive changes for the billions of people who do not yet enjoy this basic ingredient of human welfare.
Posted Date : Nov 21, 2007 |
