"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"

My grandfather would often quote that famous line from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Water does and will take on ever more importance in international development. In certain parts of the world (shown in the map), 90% of the population does not have access to improved water supplies. With climate change and desertification, the issue of water supply will only increase.

Today is World Water Day and the United Nations has declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation. The figures speak for themselves:

• Together, unclean water and poor sanitation are the world's second biggest killer of children, accounting for 5,000 child deaths every day.


• 1.1. billion people in the world do not have safe water to drink.


• 2.6 billion people (40% of the world’s population) do not have access to a toilet and then do not have fresh water to wash themselves afterwards.


• Water-related diseases cost 443 million school days each year—equivalent to an entire school year for all seven-year-olds in Ethiopia.

• 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa (Cosgrove and Rijsberman 1998) - a year's labour for the entire workforce in France.


• Women are disproportionately affected by poor water and sanitation. For example, they often have to fetch and carry water which keeps them out of school. According to DFID, 11% more girls attend school when sanitation is available.

These are simple things that we in the West take completely for granted.

For each dollar spent on water and sanitation projects, the projected return on investment (due to a reduced health burden and increased productivity) is between $3 and $34. An extra $10 billion each year is needed to reach the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation - about half of what rich countries spend on mineral water. At present levels of investment, that target will not be reached until 2076. So what can be done? Its starts with education and awareness and then action.

To mark World Water Day in the UK, Water Aid has launched the Tap into Water Project (http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/corporate_partnerships/tap_into_wateraid/default.asp#participants). It gets participating restaurants to invite customers to donate to WaterAid whenever they request a glass or jug of tap water. In the South West, The Bell at Buckland in Frome, Somerset and Polmary Restaurant in Looe, Cornwall are taking part. The initiative has also been embraced by UNICEF. In the US, it has launched The Tap Project, its biggest project in 50 years (http://tapproject.org/), asking hundreds of restaurants in 30 cities to invite customers to donate just $1 for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, which would enable a child to have clean drinking water for 40 days. The Tap Project will be launched in over 100 cities worldwide in 2009. A You Tube video on the project can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmN4B7yyS8.

In many respects, the issue of clean drinking water has been easier to address. The discussion of sanitation however has generally been taboo. Who wants to talk about toilets? It wasn't until 2002 that sanitation was even added to the list of Millennium Development Goals. In many respects, investment in pipes and sewers in the developing world is not as politically enticing or media friendly than for example investment in health and education projects. This has to change. Education in developing countries is also key: community-based learning on simple things like washing hands and the proper disposal of waste will have an almost immediate impact on a community's well being. According to the British Medical Journal, washing hands alone reduces diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%.

I hope that when water and sanitation are discussed at the G8 Summit in July, a global water and sanitation plan is agreed. The EU and major international donors must prioritise projects in these areas as the rewards in terms of third world health and productivity are immense.

UPDATE: On Sunday 11 May 2008, WaterAid is organising a sponsored walk along the Dorset coast ending at St. Edwards Church Hall in Swanage. There are a choice of three distances, the full 16 miles from Bournemouth, a moderate 10 miles from Poole and six miles from Shell Bay, Studland. To register, or for further information about the walk, contact Margaret Elshaw by email walk4water@aol.com or telephone 01929 424 684.