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Johannesburg, August (GYRP) – Mothers of the world have a frontline role in fighting the “silent killer’” of water disease. Their battle cry: “Wash your hands!”
This was the message given to the World Summit on Sustainable Development by South Africa’s Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils.
Kasrils said he received a “wake up call” when he realized that guaranteeing access to water for seven million more people was no longer enough to beat the “silent killer” of water-borne diseases. Sanitation was equally essential.
“We must have a sanitation target and time frame,” he said. “Sanitation is not a dirty word, it is about human dignity. We must change the current state of mind.”
It is not just about purifying water, either, or building pipes or latrines. The essential investment must be made in hygiene education. In schools, in communities, at home.
Kasrils added: “You need what your mothers always told you: after going to the bathroom, before eating, after stroking the cat, WASH YOUR HANDS!”
The Minister said 60,000 children die from water diseases every day because of inadequate sanitation and lack of knowledge about basic hygiene.
The issue is being brought to the attention of the World Summit by WASH (The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council), a global advocacy effort to place sanitation, hygiene and water firmly on the political agenda., introduced in 2001 at the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn.
Proof of their success came at the World Summit here as all parties agreed, in a plenary session on Water and Sanitation, on promoting water and sanitation not as a commodity but as a human right.
© GLOBAL YOUTH REPORTERS PROGRAMME
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