21 Jun 2011

UN / SANITATION FIVE YEAR BOOST

Posted at: June 21, 2011 1:01 pm

Duration: 03:51

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / SANITATION FIVE YEAR BOOST
TRT: 3.51
SOURCE: UNTV / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 21 JUNE 2011, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

RECENT 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

21 JUNE 2011, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Ban Ki-moon arrives and takes a seat
3. Cutaway, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Chairperson, UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation:
"Sanitation is arguably the most overlooked and less advance MDG target. It's unglamorous yet vital. Neglecting the need for proper toilets allows the slow moving crisis to continue. The crisis unfolds each and every day for the 2.6 billion people who simply don't have a clean, safe, hygienic place to defecate. Our board shares the belief that basic sanitation is fundamental for human dignity and is essential for economic and social development."
5. Wide shot, Prince of Orange greets ban Ki-moon
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"One aspect of sanitation deserves special attention: widespread open defecation. It is not an easy subject to talk about, but it is a threat that needs to be tackled. Living day to day without access to a proper toilet exacts a heavy toll, not just on public health, but on dignity, especially for girls and women. But ending open defecation will not be easy. It will require strong political commitment, a focused policy framework and reliable supply chains for both building and maintaining affordable latrines. Most important of all, we need effective public education, so people understand the hazards of open defecation."
7. Cutaway, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF:
"Focusing on total hygiene does more than improve health, it can also improve the safety of women and girls who are often targeted when they are all alone outdoors; and providing safe private toilets may also help girls stay in school –which we know can increase their future earnings and thus help brake the cycle of poverty. In a larger sense improving sanitation also promotes dignity, personal dignity of course but also a sense of community pride."
9. Wide shot, Maria Mutagamba approaches podium
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water & Environment, Uganda:
"Too often finance ministers simply don't understand the economic payback that safe sanitation will bring. And it is hard to make a convincing case. This is a case where the drive to 2015 will help us, but by sharing the best date on how sanitation contributes to the gross domestic product. I call upon then on experts on sanitation strategies to come up with an economic case to convince the global economic finance ministers the case for sanitation."
10. Zoom out, from sign "Sanitation For all. The Drive To 2015" to group photo-op

FILE / 16 OCTOBER 2009, FADIEDA, BAMAKO, MALI

11. Med shot, Sho Traore in green speaking with villagers
12. Close up, sign reading "clean village"
13. Wide shot, villagers following Sho Traore
14. Med shot, Sho Traore entering a newly built latrine
15. Med shot, inside latrine area

FILE / 5 NOVEMBER 2009, HAMUKUNGU, UGANDA

16. Med shot, cholera ward in hospital
17. Close up, bed with hole in the middle
18. Med shot, woman prepares food on the ground as boy walks past in the distance carrying water buckets
19. Close up, latrine in open landscape

STORYLINE:

In a bid to improve the health and well-being of millions of people worldwide, the United Nations today launched a major push to accelerate progress towards the goal of halving, by 2015, the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation.
Access to sanitation has been recognized by the UN as a human right, a basic service required to live a normal life. And yet, some 2.6 billion people – or half the population in the developing world – still lack access to improved sanitation. 
Prince of Orange, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who is Chairperson of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, noted that sanitation is arguably the most overlooked and less advanced MDG target. 
"It is unglamorous, yet vital," he stated, "neglecting the need for proper toilets allows a slow moving crisis to continue." 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that "ending open defecation, in particular, will not be easy," adding that it would require strong political commitment, a focused policy framework and reliable supply chains for both building and maintaining affordable latrines. 
Children under five are the most vulnerable to poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation, two of the major causes of diarrhoea. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the disease kills at least 1.2 million children under five each year. 
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake stressed that focusing on total hygiene did more than improve health, "it can also improve the safety of women and girls who are often targeted when they are all alone outdoors."

He also said that providing safe private toilets helped girls stay in school, increasing their future earnings and thus help brake the cycle of poverty.

Uganda's Minister of Water & Environment, Maria Mutagamba said that too often finance ministers don't understand the economic payback that safe sanitation would bring.

Mutagamba called upon experts on sanitation strategies to come up with an economic case "to convince the global economic finance ministers the case for sanitation."
The drive launched today, "Sustainable sanitation: The Five-Year-Drive to 2015," was established by the General Assembly in a resolution adopted last December that called on Member States to redouble efforts to close the sanitation gap, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015. 
The resolution also called for an end to open defecation, the most dangerous sanitation practice for public health and one practiced by over 1.1 billion people who have no access to facilities.