At INDEX: Design to Improve Life^® sanitation and safe drinking water has always been a priority high on the list of global issues to tackle, which is why over the years INDEX: Award has honored numerous designs that focus on these particular problems. 

“The need for action is overwhelming and the current situation where 37% of the world’s population still live without a toilet is unacceptable.”  says David Winder, CEO of WaterAid America.

In the report, Saving lives: sanitation and water for all would save 2.5 million lives, the authors say that the majority of developing countries are seriously off-track on meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - halving the number of people living without safe water by 2015 - and will not meet that target anytime soon. Some places, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, will not be able to meet the target for over 150 years at the current rate.

The WaterAid report also says "the poor quality of sanitation and lack of access to safe drinking water causes 1.4 million child deaths every year, due to diarrhea, and that these deaths are preventable". The second biggest killer of children worldwide is diarrhea, which is caused by a lack of adequate sanitation and unsafe drinking water. To put this in perspective, 1.4 million annual deaths is the equivalent of the entire Hawaiian population being wiped out in one year. It is also the equivalent of the entire population of Philadelphia being wiped out by diarrhea in one year..

The report's findings come at a critical time, as the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington held today (April 20) brings together 70 government ministers from over 60 countries to discuss the global water and sanitation crisis.

One focus of this meeting is to specifically call on the world's leaders to keep their own sanitation promises, as well as support the 57 countries which are currently most off-track to meeting their MDG sanitation targets.

"We now have an opportunity to do something about the current situation. This week there is a critical meeting in Washington where real progress on improving sanitation and water can be made. Progress on both fronts is essential to saving children’s lives and to delivering social and economic development." says Winder.

At INDEX: Design to Improve Life^® we are glad to see such initiatives as the WaterAid America and the Sanitation and Water for All meeting, as we hope they will lead to actions that will improve the lives for the many people suffering under these poor conditions, just as we strive to do through INDEX: Award and our other initiatives.

WaterAid is an international development agency working on global water and sanitation issues. Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a partnership of governments, donors, civil society and multilateral organizations, working to ensure that all people have access to basic sanitation and safe drinking water.

Facts:

• 783 million people live without access to safe water, around 11% of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

• 2.5 billion people live without access to sanitation, around 35% of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

• 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation - 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis. (WHO/WaterAid)

 Check out more of the startling statistics on sanitation and safe water here.