MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
McMullan
Access to basic sanitation and hygiene services and safe drinking water will improve for poor and vulnerable people around the world with 44 projects announced today by the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Mr Bob McMullan.
"The Australian Government will provide more than $31 million to support non-government organisations (NGOs) to provide toilets, clean water and promote handwashing with soap in developing countries," said Mr McMullan
The Civil Society Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund will support 11 NGOs to deliver 44 projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
World Environment Day is an important reminder that ensuring environmental sustainability (Millennium Development Goal 7) includes halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
Achieving the other Millennium Development Goals about life expectancy for children and broader health and development aims are contingent upon progress in the area of water and sanitation.
"Improving hygiene behaviour and access to clean water and sanitation services is crucial to raising the health and living standards of people living in developing countries," said Mr McMullan.
"About 60 per cent of people in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific do not have access to a toilet. More than 600 million people in these regions do not have daily access to clean drinking water.
"In these regions 1.2 million children die every year from diarrhoea. Worldwide 88 per cent of deaths from diarrhoea are directly attributable to a lack of access to clean water or adequate sanitation and hygiene."
Australia is pleased to announce the following grant recipients:
|
NGO
|
COUNTRY/COUNTRIES
|
Value
|
|---|---|---|
| Adventist Development and Relief Agency | Vanuatu | $336,165 |
| Australian Red Cross | Vanuatu | $893,291 |
| Care Australia | Ethiopia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Zimbabwe | $3,608,470 |
| East Meets West Foundation | Vietnam | $1,507,240 |
| Live and Learn Environmental Education Australia | Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu | $1,528,334 |
| Oxfam Australia | Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Mozambique, PNG, Zambia | $4,798,186 |
| Plan Australia | Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda | $4,790,600 |
| SNV Netherlands | Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Vietnam | $2,744,177 |
| Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor | Bangladesh, Kenya, Zambia | $3,581,505 |
| WaterAid Australia | Bangladesh, East Timor, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mozambique | $4,088,453 |
| World Vision Australia | Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Zimbabwe | $3,438,458 |