Proper sanitation key to global health: WaterAid Australia CEO interviewed on Radio Australia

Adam Laidlaw. Photo: WaterAid

“The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health will not succeed, in my view, without safe sanitation embedded in its implementation”, says WaterAid Australia CEO Adam Laidlaw in an interview on Radio Australia. The Global Strategy, Laidlaw was referring to, was launched on 22 September 2010 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the UN global summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “What we didn’t hear from this summit”, says Laidlaw, “was that sanitation underpins the success of a whole range of MDGs”.

Listen to the complete radio interview (Radio Australia, 24 Sep 2010).

Heads of State and UN Secretary General urge action on sanitation and water

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, together with the President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, today [22 September 2010] called for immediate action on sanitation – the most off-track Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target in sub-Saharan Africa.

The call came on the final day of the MDG Summit, [at a side event Addressing the Global Water and Sanitation Challenge: The Key to the MDGs, organized by South Korea, Liberia, Senegal, Tajikistan and USA].

Also pledging their support at the event were many high-level figures including former UN General Assembly President and current WaterAid in Sweden Chair, Jan Eliasson, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake  [Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and UNSGAB Chair His Royal Highness the Prince of the Netherlands].