Water, Environment and Sanitation
Water, environment and sanitation
Issue
The combination of safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities is a precondition for health and for success in the fight against poverty, hunger, child deaths and gender inequality. UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. All UNICEF water and sanitation programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation. Key strategies for meeting the water, sanitation and hygiene challenges are to:
X Accelerate access to water and sanitation with particular attention to those currently not reached in both urban and rural areas. Efforts will be concentrated on improving the management and allocation of resources and ensuring that access to water and sanitation services enhances health and sustainable livelihoods for the poor.
X Focus on essential, low-cost services, ranging from household¡Vlevel services to community-based maintenance and operation systems.
X Encourage household water security by making enough water of adequate quality available year-round to ensure family survival, health and productivity, without compromising the integrity of the environment.
X Strengthen policies and institutional frameworks needed to improve sanitation, safe water supply and hygiene, and build government capacities for leadership and responsibility.
X Raise the profile of sanitation, water and improved environmental health in all political and developmental venues.
X Strengthen partnerships involving United Nations agencies (in particular with the World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Programme), development banks, government development assistance agencies and sectoral institutions such as the Water Supply and
Issue
The combination of safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities is a precondition for health and for success in the fight against poverty, hunger, child deaths and gender inequality. UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. All UNICEF water and sanitation programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation. Key strategies for meeting the water, sanitation and hygiene challenges are to:
X Accelerate access to water and sanitation with particular attention to those currently not reached in both urban and rural areas. Efforts will be concentrated on improving the management and allocation of resources and ensuring that access to water and sanitation services enhances health and sustainable livelihoods for the poor.
X Focus on essential, low-cost services, ranging from household¡Vlevel services to community-based maintenance and operation systems.
X Encourage household water security by making enough water of adequate quality available year-round to ensure family survival, health and productivity, without compromising the integrity of the environment.
X Strengthen policies and institutional frameworks needed to improve sanitation, safe water supply and hygiene, and build government capacities for leadership and responsibility.
X Raise the profile of sanitation, water and improved environmental health in all political and developmental venues.
X Strengthen partnerships involving United Nations agencies (in particular with the World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Programme), development banks, government development assistance agencies and sectoral institutions such as the Water Supply and