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GLAAS 2017 report: Investments in water and sanitation need “radical increase”

GLAAS
13 Apr 2017

Countries are not increasing spending fast enough to meet the water and sanitation targets under the SDGs, says the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017. The report is published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on behalf of UN-Water – the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater-related issues, including sanitation.

Glass

According to the report, countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an annual average rate of 4.9% over the last three years. Yet, 80% of countries report that WASH financing is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH services.

“Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year” says Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.

The report stresses that countries will not meet global aspirations of universal access to safe drinking-water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.

To read the full report click here.

 

SWA 2017 High-level Meetings: how to finance the achievement of the SDGs WASH targets

On 19 and 20 April, SWA will gather finance and sector ministers to discuss how to finance the achievement of universal, sustainable access to safely managed sanitation, water and hygiene. The 2017 SWA High-level Meetings (HLMs) will take place in Washington DC, USA, and will comprise a Finance Ministers’ Meeting (FMM), convened by the World Bank on behalf of the SWA partnership, on 20 April. In the preceding days, a Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) will be convened by UNICEF.

Read more about the SWA 2017 HLM here.