G8 summit in Evian
"Evian should send a message of confidence for future growth,” said the official spokesperson for French President Jacques Chirac, as the G8 leaders flew into Evian today for the first day of their annual Summit.
However, aid agencies Tearfund and WaterAid believe that with no new money in the pipeline for water and sanitation, the G8 are sending a very different message to the 1.1 billion people who lack safe water and the 2.4 billion people without basic sanitation.
The only offer of money on the Summit table – a European led plan for a 1 billion euro Water Fund - is little more than a drop in the ocean, compared to the total $60 billion a year needed to meet the internationally agreed targets to halve the proportion of people without safe water and sanitation by 2015.
“For every 15 seconds leaders stall investing in water and sanitation a child dies from water related diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera,” says Joanne Green at Tearfund. ‘’The failure to come up with new money means that progress made at the Johannesburg Summit is in danger of being washed away as G8 nations continue to offer too little to too many. “
Britain was the engine behind securing these targets at last September’s World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. However, just 8 months on, they seem to have run out of steam.
The UK is bottom of the class when it comes to aid spending on water and sanitation – spending just 2 percent of its aid budget on water and sanitation. G8 leaders need to increase their aid spending on water and sanitation to 10 percent of their aid budget.
But more money alone is not enough – G8 leaders must ensure that this money is focussed on the poorest people if they are to have any hope of reaching the water and sanitation goals.
“Progress towards meeting the water and sanitation targets have made a painfully slow start and the clock is ticking. At this rate the sanitation target will never be met and the water target will take well over 100 years,’’ says Stephen Turner at WaterAid.
Ends.