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DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Sanitation: 'This Is the Way We Live'
By Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI - In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi remarked that "Sanitation is more important than political independence." More than 80 years later, access to basic sanitation remains out of reach for 546 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Q&A: South Africa Suffers Sanitation Backlog
Kristin Palitza interviews Gertrude Matsebe and Louiza Duncker, Sustainable Human Settlement group, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
PRETORIA - Sanitation is a key element of health, and hygiene a basic need for survival. Yet, millions of South Africans, especially those living in rural areas, do not have access to basic services, such as clean, running water and sanitary toilet systems.
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HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Cholera Now a National Emergency
By Stanley Kwenda
HARARE - "Funerals of people dying of cholera are a common feature of our daily lives," said Tapiwa Hove, a resident Budiriro, a high-density suburb of Harare. "But it seems no one cares. Sewage is flowing all over. It's like living in hell."
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DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Celebrating Sanitation
By Keya Acharya
KURUKSHETRA, Haryana State - Everywhere there was the seductively deep bass sound of Indian drums as crowds of local villagers shouted ‘Jai Swachhta’ (long live cleanliness) and punched the air.
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ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Sanitation Concerns Shift Into Space
By Keya Acharya
NEW DELHI - India may be grappling with problems of basic sanitation but, at another level, its top scientists are turning their attention to human pollution in space.
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BOOKS: Finding Humour and Tragedy in That Daily Ritual
By Mirela Xanthaki
NEW YORK - We each spend, on average, three years of our lives going to the toilet -- assuming we have one, that is.
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DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Water and Improved Livelihoods
By Zahira Kharsany
JOHANNESBURG - "Sanitation may hold the key to success or failure of the MDGs. It is really a time bomb in terms of health and the environment, waiting to be detonated," Professor Damas Mashauri told participants at a seminar on water and sustainable development taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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DEVELOPMENT: Cell Phone Service, But No Toilets
By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada - It is a fact of the 21st century that some of the poorest regions of the world have good mobile phone coverage but no toilets or safe drinking water.
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DEVELOPMENT: Global Fund Puts Spotlight on Sanitation
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The Global Sanitation Fund (GSF), created last March with a 100-million-dollar target per year, is being billed as a key financing mechanism aimed at meeting one of the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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DEVELOPMENT: Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.
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HEALTH: Global Agenda Increasingly Disease-Driven
By Michael J. Carter
SEATTLE, Washington - At the end of last month, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a global health package that effectively tripled U.S. spending over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in poor countries, to 48 billion dollars.
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DEVELOPMENT: South Africa Beats Deadline on Water, Sanitation
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - South Africa and Madagascar, two African nations participating in the Stockholm International Water Conference currently underway in the Swedish capital, provide a contrasting picture of where they stand -- or fall -- in achieving the U.N.'s heavily-trumpeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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DEVELOPMENT: Wastewater Crops Feeding Millions
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - Vegetables, rice and other cereals in at least 53 cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America may someday come with warning labels that read "this is a byproduct of raw sewage".
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News in RSS The United Nations points out that sanitation "stands out as one of the critical areas where we are falling way, way behind" in efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The statistics are staggering: some 2.6 billion people worldwide -- roughly two out of every five -- lack access to basic sanitation. Of that total, about 960 million are children, according to UNICEF. In November 2007, the UN will formally launch the International Year of Sanitation. Coinciding with the event, the Seoul-based World Toilet Association (WTA) is hosting a major international conference. The MDGs call for a 50-percent reduction in the number of people living without adequate sanitation or toilets, and the WTA is asking for "a new toilet culture and a toilet revolution."

News in RSS
MIDEAST: U.N. Diplomats Frustrated at Gaza Impasse
U.S.: Networks' Int'l News Coverage at Record Low in 2008
FILM: 1982 Massacre Rendered Through Dark, Distorted Lens
ECONOMY-BRAZIL: An Island in Stormy Waters
POLITICS: Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault
INDIA: Delivers Diplomatic Ultimatum to Pakistan
POLITICS-GHANA: New President Must Tackle Economy
PERU: Open-Pit Mine Continues to Swallow City
NEPAL: Army-Rebel Integration Hangs Fire
GREECE: Ask for Rights, Get Acid in the Face
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News in RSS
SANITATION SAVES LIVES AND HELPS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY
by Therese Dooley
NOVEMBER 2007 (IPS) - Recognising how fundamental sanitation is to children's health, social and economic development, and environmental sustainability, The UN General Assembly has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation (IYS), writes Therese Dooley, senior advisor for Hygiene and Sanitation at UNICEF.
UNQUENCHABLE THIRST: THE WORLD WATER BUSINESS
by Riccardo Petrella
AUGUST 2007 (IPS) - It is well known that even in countries where mineral water is public property, it is private companies that are making major and easy profits from selling it, writes Riccardo Petrella, founder member and secretary-general of the International Committee for the World Water Contract, and professor at the Catholic University of Louvain.
MDGS AT MIDPOINT : THE MONEY IS THERE, THE POLITICAL WILL ISN'T
by Kumi Naidoo
JULY 2007 (IPS) - We are already half-way to the deadline for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), writes Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General of CIVICUS (Worldwide Alliance for Citizen Participation). At the current rate, sub-Saharan Africa will probably not meet the sanitation portion of the MDGs until 2105
Asia Water Wire
The Southern Africa Water Wire

World Toilet Association (English)
World Toilet Association (Korean)
International Water and Sanitation Centre
UNICEF on Sanitation
BBC on Toilets

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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.