IPS reports on World Toilet Day, observed November 19

Nov 17 2012

Inter Press Service reports on World Toilet Day, observed on November 19, noting, "Currently, over 800 million people have no access to safe drinking water and over 2.5 billion people are living without adequate sanitation." "While most developing nations have made limited progress in providing clean water, the targets for sanitation have remained virtually unreachable," leaving "a lingering question in the minds of activists: how best can water and sanitation be given high priority in the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the U.N.'s post-2015 economic agenda?" the news service writes. "A new goal on universal access to basic water and sanitation services as a fundamental human right, with a target date for achieving universal access to basic water and sanitation services by 2030 would be a good start," Hannah Ellis, international campaigns manager for the London-based WaterAid, told IPS, the news service adds. Last week in a joint statement, the government of Finland, UNICEF, U.N. Women, WaterAid, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, "called for an end to water and sanitation inequalities in the U.N.'s post-2015 development agenda," IPS notes (Deen, 11/15).