Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
World Water Day 2012
- Today is World Water Day and all over the world
more than 300,000 people are demonstrating
to point out that about 800 million people have to live without clean water
and that more than 2.5 billion people live without sanitation.
Last year the WASH-Network was founded to change this.
Its members are 18 renowned German NGOs
who work together to raise awareness for the subject
so that more happens
and to put the human right for water and sanitation into practise.
- We are here in Berlin. It's March 22nd.
We are marching on the street with more than 100 people behind us
demonstrating for clean drinking water.
Everyone started at the river Spree to draw water from the river
which we now carry in solidarity with people who don't have clean water.
- The WASH-Network aims to connect key players
so we can learn from each other and improve our work abroad,
strenghten our voice here in Germany through activities like this
and get a better connection to political decision makers.
That's why we're very happy that this morning
State-Secretary Gudrun Kopp from the Federal Ministry for Economic Coop. and Development
was here and Uschi Eid as advisor to the UN Secretary General for Water and Sanitation.
This morning they fetched water out of the Spree
and gave it to us to carry.
- The UN recognised the human right to water and sanitation in 2010.
We, the German Government, underlined the right in a special declaration
that this human right exists according to international law
and that all governments have to implement this law.
- That's why it is good that we initiated a campaign last year
with the help of the UN Secretary General
with the objective that no human being has to defecate in public.
This protects the environment,
prevents children from disease
and enables a life in more dignity.
- For me it's important to stress how closely
water, sanitation and food secruity are connected.
Many people don't know about this nexus;
even many donor countries don't know this,
so we seek to push this topic on all levels.
Therefore I praise the WASH-Network's campaign
to organise a march of 5km through Berlin
to show how difficult it is to get water in developing countries.
Raising awareness for this subject is great
and I support this campaign and its cause with great pleasure.
- Viva con Agua, Wash United, the WASH-Network
World Water Day 2012
- We can all learn something from each other for our projects,
and we can connect better ...
- I don't like that there are people who starve and don't have water ...
World Water Day 2012
German WASH-Network