WaterAid India has appealed to the political leadership to deliver on Goal 6 of 'Global Goals for Sustainable Development' by ensure basic access to water, sanitation and hygiene to everyone and everywhere by 2030.
The NGO said there should be indicators to monitor progress in access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in homes, schools and health care facilities, besides ensuring that developing countries are prioritising water and sanitation programmes and finding new and effective ways of mobilising domestic resources.
The inclusion of this goal is a victory for more than 650 million people in the world today without access to clean water and 2.3 billion people without access to safe and private toilets.
"It is also heartening to see water and sanitation being included as Goal 6, which is crucial to achieve all other indicators related to health and nutrition," Neeraj Jain, Country Representative of WaterAid India said.
The 17 Global Goals on Sustainable Development aim at tackling extreme poverty, inequalities and climate change, including the water and sanitation crisis which kills half-a-million young children each year from preventable diarrhoeal diseases.
It affects women and girls most as they are most often tasked with collecting water at higher risk of illness or infection in the absence of safe water, basic toilets and good hygiene, and are made more vulnerable to attack if they must relieve themselves in the open, Jain said.
In India, 5.9 per cent of households do not have access to clean water and 60.4 per cent do not have access to sanitation.
A recent report by WaterAid, Essential Element, has found that 45 low-income countries are chronically underfunded in water, sanitation and hygiene financing, and will not meet the UN goal without new political and financial prioritisation. India is among these 45 countries.
