ENPHO

ENPHO E-Bulletin April 2011

EDITORIAL

SANITATION ENHANCES QUALITY OF LIFE

It is not surprising that diarrhoea continues to be a leading cause of child deaths in South Asia when nearly one billion people live without access to adequate sanitation across the region. To enhance quality of life of the people, the Fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN- IV) was held on April 4-7 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The conference relates to goal- 7 of the MDGs. The heads of delegation from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were among the more than 300 delegates from government, UN agencies, civil society and private sector that attended SACOSAN-IV. It is good initiation that, South Asian ministers have promised asserted to tackle the sanitation challenge in South Asia and promises to set up a national body in each country to coordinate sanitation and hygiene, involving all stakeholders. The aim of these bodies would be to enable access to sanitation to the 700 million South Asians who still defecate in the open. In addition, governments would develop time-bound plans and allocate and mobilize resources for delivering on all the previous SACOSAN commitments. The Colombo declaration is a milestone of a progressive step forward with radical realization of the right to sanitation. However it is necessity to development of strong joint monitoring and accountability mechanisms by government and civil society to bring significant accomplishment of obligations.