World Bank MD urges action on water supply and sanitation crisis in the developing world
THE NIGERIAN MD of the World Bank Group has lamented the lack of clean watering supplies in developing countries.
“They are services the developed world takes for granted, but in the developing world are often sadly lacking,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a World Bank/IMF meeting in Washington DC. “It’s why water and sanitation deserves the attention of the highest policymakers around the world.”
Okonjo-Iweala, a child of the Biafran War in Nigeria in the late 1960s, recalled walking miles to fetch water and commented: “Water is an essential of life. But the sad reality is that many children in the world still have no choice but to walk miles every day to fetch water for their families.”
Today more than 884 million people in the world lack access to safe water, outlined the Nigerian woman, adding that 40 per cent of people do not have access to proper toilets. One of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the number of people without access to clean water, and Okonjo-Iweala said efforts are off target.
“We know that failure to act comes at a high cost... 1.6 million children die every year from diarrhoea, 90 per cent of which is attributable to inadequate sanitation, water supply and hygiene,” she said.
“But think too of the economic cost, of the productive time lost as women and children walk miles to fetch water. An estimated 40 billion hours a year are spent collecting water in sub-Saharan Africa.”
In Ireland, proposals are imminent to introduce domestic water charges with new water meters for every home in a bid to improve conservation, but Okonjo-Iweala called for greater input from developed countries.
“The responsibility to ensure access to water and sanitation must be seen as a priority by leaders of both rich and poor countries.”
