sanitation

We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.” World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development.

On World Water Day, as on every other day, some 2.5 billion people are "doing their business" somewhere other than in a toilet or latrine. Thatis not a statistic many people want to examine too closely, but it is crucial data for efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals on improving global sanitation and reducing child mortality.

Over 2.6 billion people still do not have access to any form of improved sanitation that doesn't pollute water and soil. The UN's goal is to halve that number within 8 years, which means the construction of 100,000 earth-friendly toilets a day - a number that's achievable according to delegates of the recent World Toilet Organization summit.

Water and Sanitation Needs in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies is an excellent series of MP3's of lectures by Leslie Roberts (who led the civilian deaths in Iraq study).

I found this series extremely interesting (entertaining even) and informative.