Earth Summit Agrees on New Goal to Expand Access to Sanitation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 02, 2002

Earth Summit Agrees on New Goal to Expand Access to Sanitation

World leaders at the Earth Summit Monday agreed to commit themselves to a target of 2015 for reducing the numbers of people who lack access to proper sanitation.

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World leaders at the Earth Summit Monday agreed to commit themselves to a target of 2015 for reducing the numbers of people who lack access to proper sanitation.

This is a major step forward to promote efforts to eradicate poverty and protect the environment, according to the on-going World Summit on Sustainable Development, which started here on Aug.26.

The new commitment on sanitation comes as a companion target tothe already agreed upon goal of halving the proportion of people who lack access to clean water, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals.

The new commitment agreed to in Johannesburg also calls on countries to provide the resources and technical assistance needed to embark on action programs to meet the goals.

Secretary-General of the Earth Summit Nitin Desai said: "The new commitment show that the Johannesburg summit has moved the international community to take action on an essential element in the fight to reduce poverty, promote human dignity, and protect and improve the environment."

"This is an historic commitment because for the first time the world has made the issue of water sanitation a high-level political priority," he added.

More than one billion people presently lack access to clean drinking water, and another billion people lack access to proper sanitation.

A lack of clean water and sanitation is blamed for causing more than three quarters of diseases. More than 7 million children die every year - 6,000 a day - due to diarrhea diseases including cholera and dysentery.

During the summit, several donor countries, including the United States and the European Union, have pledged to commit significant resources to new initiatives that will expand access to clean water and proper sanitation.

In addition, many partnership initiatives by NGOs, international organizations and the private sector have been launched at the summit to address these needs.

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