Water & Sanitation

[News & Event] Countdown to 2015 report shows progress, calls for continued action

Countdown to 2015, June 2012

The 2012 Countdown to 2015 Report, Building a Future for Women and Children, highlights country progress—and obstacles to progress—towards achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health. It includes 75 country profiles.

Read the highlights here.

Download the report:

[News & Event] Sanitation: Flushed with pride

The Economist, August 2012

The Gates Foundation announces the winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, which aims to bring safe, affordable and sustainable toilets to the 40% of the world’s population who lack access to basic sanitation.

Read the full article

[News & Event] UNICEF report points to rapid progress made in reducing child deaths worldwide

UNICEF, September 2012

Data released by UNICEF show that the number of children under the age of 5 dying globally has dropped from nearly 12 million in 1990 to an estimated 6.9 million in 2011. Though the progress is remarkable and worth celebrating, more needs to be done in the highest burden countries where children are still dying from pneumonia and diarrhea.

Read the full article

[News & Event] Cash rewards spur poor communities to pay for sanitation projects

Christian Science Monitor, September 2012

The East Meets West Foundation tries cash awards to encourage families and communities in Vietnam and Cambodia to build latrines and hand-washing devices.

Read the full article

[News & Event] London sanitation exhibit aims to make "poo" a hot topic

AlertNet, October 2012

The London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and SHARE, a sanitation and hygiene research initiative funded by the UK's Department of International Development, have co-organized a month-long exhibition on sanitation that features toilet designs, research tools, and yes, a golden poo sculpture.

Read the full article

[News & Event] PATH selected for water sanitation grant

PATH press release, November 2012

With a new grant from the Starbucks Foundation, PATH will address water, sanitation, and hygiene in coffee-growing communities in Tanzania.

Read the full press release.

[News & Event] Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, on the Best Buy in Global Health

Forbes, January 2013

In a recent in-depth interview conducted by the Skoll World Forum‘s Rahim Kanani, Executive Director of UNICEF Anthony Lake discussed the urgent need to create a commodities market of life-saving medicines in the developing world (including zinc and ORS), arguing that healthy children are good for business.

Read the full article

[News & Event] Call for targeted investments in cholera-prone areas

IRIN, January 2013

Targeting areas known as "cholera hotbeds" could be key to reaching the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the number of people worldwide who lack access to safe water, according to aid groups.

Read the full article.

[News & Event] When What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Huffington Post, April 2013

David Winder, Chief Executive of WaterAid, notes that problems like unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation, and poor hygiene are exacerbated by a lack of education about their health impact. He cites the new Global Action Plan against Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) as an ecnouraging example of increasing coordination and partnership that is designed to tackle the problems in locally-specific ways.

[Page] Government of Kenya Unveils New Policy to Combat Diarrheal Disease

On March 31, 2010, the Government of Kenya stepped out as a regional leader in the renewed fight against DD—unveiling an updated national policy to manage and control diarrheal disease.  The policy, which highlights traditional and new interventions like ORS, breastfeeding, zinc, hygiene, and forthcoming interventions including rotavirus vaccines, shows Kenya’s commitment to addressing diarrheal disease through a comprehensive approach.