USAID Joins Global Water and Sanitation Partnership
Washington - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has
joined an international partnership of governments, donors, civil society
organizations and development partners working to achieve sustainable sanitation
and drinking water worldwide.
USAID and the U.S. Department of State are committing a total of $1 million
to the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program. The investment will support
the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA)-led National Planning for Results
Initiative, which promotes national planning efforts related to sanitation and
water. The economic gains from investing in sanitation and water are estimated
at $170 billion per year, USAID said.
"The United States government considers sanitation and water and our
related partnering activities to be a critical component of our overall
international development assistance effort," USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
said during remarks at the SWA High Level Meeting. "We look forward to
maximizing the potential of this partnership, which brings together such a range
of tools, experience and approaches. Working together, we can not only reach
full coverage, but we can also do it in the most effective, efficient and
collaborative way."
Established in 2010, SWA's biennial High Level Meeting brings together
ministers of finance from developing countries, ministers of development
cooperation from donor countries and high-level representatives from development
banks and other donor institutions.
In March, the United Nations announced that the Millennium Development Goal
for a 50 percent reduction in the number of people living without access to safe
drinking water had been achieved in 2010 - five years ahead of schedule. Even
with that target met, more than 780 million people - particularly those in
fragile states and poor communities - still live without access to safe water,
USAID says.
Progress in sanitation has been slower, according to USAID. Today, 2.5
billion people still lack access to improved sanitation, and it is unlikely that
the Millennium Development Goal target for sanitation will be met by 2015.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)
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