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HEALTH-LAOS: Inadequate Sanitation Denting GDP
By Nergui Manalsuren
UNITED NATIONS - Poor sanitation and hygiene costs the Lao People’s Democratic Republic 193 million dollars per year, an estimated 5.6 percent of gross domestic product, according to figures from the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank.
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ARGENTINA: Huge Loan to Flow into ‘Open Sewer’ River
By Marcela Valente*
BUENOS AIRES - Local residents and environmentalists are eyeing with cautious optimism a major loan from the World Bank to the Argentine government to clean up the Matanza-Riachuelo river that runs through Buenos Aires - the country's most polluted waterway.
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MIDEAST: Attack on Water Brings Sanitation Crisis
By Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY - 'Biddun mey, fish heyya', they say in Arabic for a universal truth: 'Without water, there is no life'.
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Q&A: Why Sanitation Is the Forgotten Sister
Busani Bafana interviews NOMA NESENI, WSSCC water, sanitation and health coordinator
BULAWAYO - As part of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, Zimbabwe developed a national strategy for sanitation, launched in February 2008. Just five months later, a cholera outbreak that was to claim over 4,000 lives began.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Wastewater Is a Resource
By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN - South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government.
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BURMA: Nature Conspires Against Cyclone Victims, Denying Them Clean Water
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - A year after powerful Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta and southern Rangoon, killing tens of thousands of people, nature continues to play a cruel trick on survivors.
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HEALTH: Killer Diarrheal Diseases Eclipsed on Donor Agendas
By Danielle Kurtzleben and Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - Interest in reducing the harm caused by diarrheal diseases has waned among the global health and aid communities, said two new reports released Tuesday in Washington.
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DEVELOPMENT: Making Sanitation Sexy
By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - Though the issue of human excreta is often taboo in polite company, human waste and sanitation are starting to take their rightful place in debates about development and human health.
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DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Offers New Political Profile for Sanitation
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - When the United Nations concluded its International Year of Sanitation (IYS) last December, it left behind some 2.5 billion people worldwide waiting in line for toilets that did not exist or were in short supply.
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HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever Is Here
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - While the authorities squabble over what or whom to blame, Argentina is suffering its worst epidemic of dengue fever since 1998 in terms of the number of people and the size of the area affected. And on top of that, the most dangerous form of the illness, never recorded here before, has made its appearance.
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Q&A: Sanitation Must Be Owned by Local Communities
Nergui Manalsuren interviews JAE SO and PETER KOLSKY of the World Bank
UNITED NATIONS - The world’s developing nations, particularly in Asia and Africa, are struggling to cope with two of the basic necessities of life: fresh water and adequate sanitation.
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ENVIRONMENT-KENYA: Rainwater Harvesting: Two Birds With One Stone
By Shem Oirere
NAIROBI - Bitter irony: in recent years Nairobi has experienced severe flooding and widespread water shortages, due to poor urban planning and collapsing infrastructure systems that are failing to support the Kenyan capital's expanding population.
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NICARAGUA: Cleaning Up ‘World’s Biggest Toilet’
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA - After dumping its untreated wastewater into lake Managua for more than 80 years, the capital of Nicaragua has started to clean up the huge source of water in this country, where 80 percent of fresh water sources are polluted.
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Q&A: Water Crisis Could Affect Billions
Thalif Deen interviews GER BERGKAMP of the World Water Council
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations has warned that about half the world's population - over three billion people by today's count - may suffer water shortages by the year 2025.
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Q&A: Sanitation Crisis Runs Deep in Africa, Asia
Thalif Deen interviews SONG YOUNG-GON, head of the World Toilet Association
UNITED NATIONS - As part of the International Year of Sanitation (IYS), the United Nations launched an aggressive campaign last year to fend off what it called a "silent global crisis": the woeful lack of adequate sanitation in the world's poorest countries.
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Q&A: "Sanitation Is Becoming a Social Movement"
Nergui Manalsuren interviews THERESE DOOLEY, UNICEF sanitation advisor
UNITED NATIONS - While 2008 - declared by the U.N. as the "International Year of Sanitation" - came and went with 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, still living without basic facilities, UNICEF's sanitation and hygiene senior advisor, Therese Dooley, says there is reason for hope.
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News in RSS Despite improved sanitation worldwide last year, there are still about 2.6 billion people - or about 41 percent of the world population - lacking adequate toilet facilities.

The United Nations says the annual cost of meeting the water and sanitation targets in the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is about $11.3 billion, of which $9.5 billion is for sanitation alone. The world body is currently assessing the successes and failures of the International Year of Sanitation 2008. Meanwhile, the Seoul-based World Toilet Association (WTA) – working in some of the world's poorest nations, including Cambodia, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Laos and Mongolia - is calling for “a new toilet culture and a toilet revolution”.

The MDGs call for a 50-percent reduction in the number of people living without adequate sanitation or toilets.

Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Education - The Key to Development
The Southern Africa Water Wire
Asia Water Wire
News in RSS
RELIGION-BRAZIL: Intolerance Denounced at UN
DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Fears Over New Land Deal
PERU: Petroleum Sullies the Amazon
AGRICULTURE: Biotechnology: Africa Must Not Be Left Behind
EUROPE: Croatia on Uncertain Course for EU Membership
RIGHTS-AFRICA: AU Heeds Perpetrators Not Victims
RUSSIA: Hoping for Much, Expecting Little
POLITICS-BOTSWANA: Parties Block Women Candidates for Upcoming Elections
CUBA-US: Frosty Relations No Bar to Communication
RIGHTS-INDIA: India's Historic Gay Ruling
More >>
News in RSS
SANITATION SAVES LIVES AND HELPS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY
by Therese Dooley
UNQUENCHABLE THIRST: THE WORLD WATER BUSINESS
by Riccardo Petrella
MDGS AT MIDPOINT : THE MONEY IS THERE, THE POLITICAL WILL ISN'T
by Kumi Naidoo

UN Millennium Development Goals
World Toilet Association (English)
World Toilet Association (Korean)
International Water and Sanitation Centre
UNICEF on Sanitation
BBC on Toilets
MDG Monitor - Tracking the Millennium Development Goals
United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service - Millennium Development Goals
MDGs Choike - a portal on Southern civil societies

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IPS gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the World Toilet Association in South Korea for special coverage of issues related to sanitation.