· The UK has announced a new
5-year programme to improve access to safe, reliable and
affordable water supplies and sanitation services, benefitting
millions in Asia and Africa.
· UK Climate and Environment
minister announced new UK funding at
the United Nation Water Conference, the first UN conference
focused on water since 1977.
· New support builds on the
UK’s success helping 120 million people gain access to basic
water and hygiene facilities between 2010 and 2020.
Speaking at the first UN High-Level Conference on Water in 40
years, UK Climate and Environment Minister, announced new support to
improve the quality of water supply, and sanitation and hygiene
services in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
£18.5 million in UK funding will help provide safe, reliable, and
affordable water supply sanitation and hygiene services that help
prevent disease, protect people’s health and safeguard the
environment from pollution. It is a key part of the UK
government’s commitment to help end the preventable deaths of
mothers, young children and infants.
The programme will help people living in poor communities across
Asia and Africa, including in rural areas and in informal
settlements in towns and cities. The funding will also support
improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene services in
schools, including menstrual hygiene, and in health facilities
where it will have a major impact on reducing infection and
improving quality of care received by patients.
Between 2010 and 2020, UK funding helped over 120 million people
gain access to clean water supplies and sanitation. Since 2020
the UK has also reached 1.2 billion people with information
promoting hygiene, with a strong emphasis on handwashing,
including to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The provision of safe water supply, sanitation and hygiene
services helps protect people, especially young children,
from diarrhoea, cholera and other killer diseases. It also
reduces the huge effort and time that women and girls spend
collecting water, opening up education and employment
prospects.
UK Climate and Environment minister said:
“Access to water is a human right and it is shocking that by
2030, 1.6 billion people will still not have access to a safe,
reliable water supply. We urgently need to scale up global
action, to support governments to strengthen and improve water
sanitation and hygiene services.
“The UK’s new funding will build on our long-running work to
ensure more people have access to clean and safe water, to
prevent deaths, open up education and employment, and reduce
poverty.”
The UN Conference on Water comes at a critical time. It is
predicted that global freshwater demand will outstrip supply by
40% by 2030. will meet with international
partners and members of the private sector to discuss progress on
ensuring water is a safe, sustainable and accessible resource
globally.
This builds on the UK’s COP26 Presidency and work to drive
progress on improving access to water, as well as how we value,
manage and use water. At COP26, the UK and Malawi launched the
Fair Water Footprints initiative, ensuring that goods consumed in
the UK and across the world, have sustainable, just and equitable
water management.
Notes to Editors
1. The Global Commission on the Economics
of Water predicts that global freshwater demand will outstrip
supply by 40% by 2030. Turning the Tide: A Call to Collective
Action (watercommission.org)
