21 Mar 2013

UN / WATER AND SANITATION

On the eve of World Water Day, UN senior officials, along with an NGO representative, called today (21 March) for urgent action to end the crisis of 2.5 billion people with no basic sanitation, which can lead to open defecation.

Posted at: March 21, 2013 6:04 pm

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STORY: UN / WATER AND SANITATION
TRT: 2.19
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 21 MARCH 2013, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS

SHOTLINE:

FILE - 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters

21 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK

2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General:
"But the other figure that I knew at that time, which is still almost the same, is 2.5 billion people who do not have sanitation, which is an euphemism for toilet. 37% of humanity indeed. And if you add the effects of 783 million people not having safe water and 2.5 billion not having sanitation, well, that adds up to horrors in realities out there, and I've seen with my own eyes. I've seen children dying in front of my own eyes. In diarrheas, in dysenteries, in dehydrations, in cholera."
4. Cutaway, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General:
"One person out of four of the least developed countries is practising open defecation. So we also now have in this campaign which is starting the goal of ending defecation by 2025."
6. Cutaway, journalists
7.  SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Mogwanja, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF:
"UNICEF and indeed the entire UN system supports this call to action to finally eliminate open defecation. We are redoubling our efforts in sanitation, not only because sanitation is one of the MDG targets as you said that is furthest behind, but because it's fundamental to health and especially to children's health. Today, diarrhea and other water-born diseases will kill nearly 3,000 children, and tomorrow, they will kill another 3,000 children. In fact, diarrhea is the second largest killer of children under 5 in the developing world. And this is caused largely by poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene. This need not be so."
8. Cutaway, roll of toilet paper for publicity purposes on the table
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kate Norgrove, Head of Campaigs, Wateraid:
"It's astonishing really. There's just not enough money for sanitation. And it's not spent in the right way quite often. Even though there are some quite simple solutions. It's challenging in urban areas, as many people were saying, but in rural areas it's easier.  And sometimes, it's as much as showing people how to wash their hands."
10. Wide shot, conference room

STORYLINE:

The panel, which brought together Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director, Martin Mogwanja, Hungarian ambassador to the UN, Csaba Körösi, and Wateraid's head of campaigns, Kate Norgrove, stressed that improving access to sanitation, and ending open defecation, can prevent diarrhea and water-born diseases, particularly in children.

Jan Eliasson said that the 2.5 billion people who do not have access to basic sanitation, which he called an "euphemism for toilet," amount to "37% of humanity."

He said that "if you add the effects of 783 million not having safe water," it all "adds up to horrors" which he had seen with his own eyes, adding, "I've seen children dying in front of my own eyes. In diarrheas, in dysenteries, in dehydrations, in cholera…"

According to Martin Mogwanja, diarrhea and other water-born diseases caused by lack of access to basic sanitation killed 3,000 children today, and "tomorrow, they will kill another 3,000 children."

The call to action issued today will not set up any new structures or funding mechanisms, but focus on generating action at the community level— one community at a time.