Environment and Energy

What's New

IWCAM Project Video Outreach
Several new videos can now be streamed live through IW:LEARN.NET. Some of the latest productions have been released by the IWCAM Project, entitled 'Think About Water', which is a series of four video shorts (2 mins each) introducing Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in the Caribbean. If you have a video that you would like to make available through IWLEARN.NET, please contact us.

UNDP and Transparency International: Ensuring universal access to water

On June 25, UNDP hosted the launch of Transparency International's 2008 Global Corruption Report "Corruption in Water Sector". The event, held at the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium, was opened by Andrew Hudson, the UNDP Water Governance team leader. The presentation of the new report was delivered by Ms. Huguette Labelle, the Transparency International Chair. Then a panel discussion on the significance of the report within the global efforts to ensure universal access to water followed. The audience included representatives of member states, UN and UNDP staff, members of academia and NGO's, and media. Andrew Hudson was interviewed after the event by the Associated Press TV service.

2008 Global Corruption Report "Corruption in Water Sector"

Click here for Andrew Hudson's opening remarks.

World Water Day 2008

UNDP/Haiti Three Children come out of a makeshift latrine in Cap Haïtien.

Press Release | Facts | UNDP on sanitation | 20 March Exhibit

Access to a clean and safe toilet and hygiene education could cut child deaths from diarrhoea by two thirds and could generate US$66 billion-worth of economic benefits, said the United Nations today ahead of World Water Day on 22 March, as it called for increased commitment to tackling the global sanitation crisis.

The theme of World Water Day this year is sanitation in support of the International Year of Sanitation 2008, as the lack of decent toilets and the contamination this causes is a root cause of unsafe water.

Over 2.6 billion people or 41 percent of the global population have no access to improved sanitation services. ‘No access’ is a polite way of saying that 5,000 children under five die every day from diarrhoea for lack of a decent toilet and hygiene, that girls are forced to stay home from school rather than risk indignity and sexual harassment without private latrines, and that raw sewage flows directly into streams, rivers and lakes, fouling the environment and exposing billions of people to disease. more...

For more information:

• Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment [PDF]
• Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
• Water Rights and Wrongs: A young people's summary of the Human Development Report 2006
• International Year of Sanitation
• Get involved

Get Involved | Upcoming Events | Find out more | Background

In September 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals that challenged the global community to reduce poverty and increase the health and well-being of all peoples. In September 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg reaffirmed these goals and added access to basic sanitation as a centerpiece of the poverty eradication commitments.

The central objective of the International Year of Sanitation is to put the global community on track to achieve the sanitation MDG. Sanitation is the foundation of health, dignity, and development. Increased sanitation access especially for poor people, is fundamental for reaching all the Millennium Development Goals.