Water

Today more than 1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion people live without access to sanitation systems.

The UN Millennium Development Goal to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation means we need to bring clean water to 300,000 additional people and sanitation to 450,000 additional people every day for the next 6 years. Are we likely to achieve it?

To achieve this requires much more global attention, much better coordination and much more money, estimated at an extra $10 billion per year. The money can come through higher aid flows and capital borrowing, fairer revenue generation from those who are already served and more government spending on basic services.

Access to clean water and sanitation are key to human development. But without a third component, hygiene, we will not make substantial improvements in health and address the problem of water borne diseases. We can combat diarrhoea, which kills more than 3 million people a year, through educating people on hygiene issues such as hand washing and preparing and storing foods.

Water is also a vital input for agriculture, particularly smallholder farmers who account for more than half of the world’s population living on less than $1 a day. Access to water for irrigation is not fair in many of the developing countries where Progressio works. It is often controlled by the wealthiest farmers and those with power, such as multinational agriculture companies.

What is Progressio doing?
Progressio Ireland has partnered with UK NGO WaterAid to consult with Irish organisations on their water work. A meeting was held in June 2009 with all Irish NGOs working on water to share experiences, get feedback and decide how we will together develop policy advocacy work in Ireland and in the South.

Progressio also works with our partner organisations in Central America to try and exclude public services, such as water delivery, from the Central American Free Trade Agreement proposed between the region and the EU.

Submission to Irish Aid on the revision of their "Policy Guidelines on Water Supply and Sanitation - Progressio Ireland, September 2007

Review of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene advocacy by Irish NGOs - Progressio Ireland and WaterAid, June 2008

For further resources or comment please email emmetbergin@eircom.net