2008 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SANITATION

摘要

Remember the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004? The whole world was in shock at the devastation it caused to thousands of communities around the Indian Ocean. Some 300,000 people died, large numbers of towns and cities were washed away together with their infrastructure, impacting more than 20 million people. The world community responded splendidly to that event with over $10 billion pledged to help the ravaged communities to restore their townships and communities. Australia alone pledged more than $1 billion to its less well-off neighbouring countries, to help them restore their infrastructure and help the people get back on their feet. I was very proud of the contributions of several of my colleagues at GHD along with many other water professionals who volunteered their time and went to the impacted areas to help restore basic services such as water supply and sanitation. Now imagine an event that kills almost ten times more people than the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami did every year. Sadly that is the situation faced today by some of the poorest people in the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 40% of the world population (some 2.6 billion people) lacks adequate sanitation resulting in at least 1.8 million deaths every year, mostly children under the age of five.