Press Release

14 November 2008

Minister speaks out on World Toilet Day

Minister Mike FosterInternational Development Minister for water and sanitation, Mike Foster, spoke out as the world prepared to mark World Toilet Day on the often forgotten but hugely important problem of sanitation in developing countries.

Mike Foster said:

“As we look towards World Toilet Day, more than one billion people in developing countries will spend yet another day without any kind of toilet. This reinforces our need to bring about change globally and give the same access to sanitation they currently live without. This is why we at DFID announced last month an increased effort to bring an end to the sanitation crisis in developing countries by building toilets for more than 50 million people in the next five years.”

The Department for International Development (DFID) last month announced it will meet its commitment of £200 million to Africa by 2010 and maintain this until 2013. For a country like Sierra Leone, this will mean 1.5 million more people – almost one-third of the country’s population - will have safe water and toilets, which will prevent the deaths of 15,000 children.

Countries helped by this policy include Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Mozambique, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and India.

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Notes for editors

1. World Toilet Day takes place on 19th November.

2. The commitments announced on 28th October 2008 will make DFID, on behalf of the UK Government, one of the top 3 bilateral donors supporting water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa.

3. DFID works in over one hundred developing countries across the world. Our water advisors based across Africa and Asia work with governments and local communities to deliver essential services including access to clean water and basic sanitation.

4. 900 million people still lack access to safe drinking water, and approximately 2.5 billion still have no basic sanitation, including more than 1 billion with no access to any kind of toilet and the remaining without access to safe toilets.

5. A copy of DFID’s water and sanitation policy paper Water: An increasingly precious resource. Sanitation: A matter of dignity is available from www.dfid.gov.uk

For further information, contact Amy Wright on 020 7023 1753 or 020 7023 0600, e-mail amy-wright@dfid.gov.uk or call our Public Enquiries Point on 0845 300 4100.

DFID News is available on our website at www.dfid.gov.uk

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