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STORY: UN / WORLD TOILET DAY WRAP
TRT: 3.23
SOURCE: UNTV/ CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 NOVEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY/ 19 NOVEMBER 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
FILE - RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
19 NOVEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Zoom out, from World Toilet Day toilet paper roll to dais
3. Med shot, reporters
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Therese Dooley, Senior Advisor on Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF:
“Sometimes it’s a topic we joke about, we find it difficult to take serious, but if 20 school buses crashed on First Avenue today, I guarantee that there would be a lot of response and an immediate reaction. And the reality is that this is the number of children that die every day as a direct result of not having access to sanitation. The number is 1,400 everyday.”
5. Med shot, photographer
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Kent, International Campaigns Manager at Water Aid:
“From birth, both babies and mothers are susceptible to infection. Hand washing at birth attendees and mothers can increase newborn survival rates by 44 percent. Diarrhoea spread by lack of safe water and sanitation claims the lives of 2,000children under the age of 5 everyday. That’s more lives than Malaria, AIDS and Measles combined. With only 45 percent of schools that have adequate toilets, girls drop out in droves when they start menstruating.”
7. Med shot, reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tanya Khan, National Coordinator, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), Pakistan:
“Having access to safe drinking water and sanitation is central to living a life with dignity and upholding human rights, yet billions of people still do not enjoy the fundamental right.”
9. Med shot, reporters,
10. Zoom out, end op presser
11. Various shots, walking toilet
FILE - RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
12. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
19 NOVEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
13. Wide shot, press room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Williams, Executive Director, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC):
“It's a call to action on sanitation and hygiene to focus our attention on its importance on its links to health, education, basic access to human rights as well as a focus on attendance at school and education.”
15. Med shot, table of journalists
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Williams, Executive Director, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC):
“The stark facts are that roughly 2.5 billion people lack adequate access to sanitation and hygiene, of which 526 million lacking access to sanitation defecate in the open.”
17. Wide shot, press room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Williams, Executive Director, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC):
“We estimate that roughly 20 per cent of school attendance is reduced because of inadequate menstrual hygiene management facilities as well as disposal.”
19. Close up, journalists
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Williams, Executive Director, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC):
“The level of understanding of this basic human function of women is completely misunderstood, poorly communicated and the implications for human dignity, the implications for human rights, the implications for missed education and the implications for lack of productivity are extraordinary.”
21. Med shot, table of journalists
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Williams, Executive Director, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC):
“Over 2.5 billion people still remain without adequate sanitation but 1.9 billion people have access to improved sanitation since 2000.”
23. Med shot, table of journalists
With its first official observance of World Toilet Day, the United Nations today (19 November) called on the international community to help break taboos around toilets, which are still out of reach to more than one-third of the global population, and make sanitation a global development priority.
At a press conference in New York, Therese Dooley, Senior Advisor on Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, said “sometimes it’s a topic we joke about, we find it difficult to take serious.”
Dooley said that if “20 school buses crashed on First Avenue today, I guarantee that there would be a lot of response and an immediate reaction. And the reality is that this is the number of children that die every day as a direct result of not having access to sanitation. The number is 1,400 everyday.”
According to a joint UNICEF and World Health Organization WHO) report this year, the largest number of these people are in India (626 million), followed by Indonesia (63 million), Pakistan (40 million), Ethiopia (38 million), and Nigeria (34 million).
Alex Kent, International Campaigns Manager at Water Aid, said that women and girls suffer disproportionally from the lack of proper water and sanitation.
Kent said that “from birth, both babies and mothers are susceptible to infection. Hand washing at birth attendees and mothers can increase newborn survival rates by 44 percent.”
She also said that “diarrhoea spread by lack of safe water and sanitation claims the lives of 2,000children under the age of 5 everyday. That’s more lives than Malaria, AIDS and Measles combined.”
Of the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the sanitation target is the most off-track with more than 80 per cent of countries behind in the national targets that they set.
Tanya Khan, National Coordinator, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) of Pakistan, said that “having access to safe drinking water and sanitation is central to living a life with dignity and upholding human rights, yet billions of people still do not enjoy the fundamental right.”
While six billion people worldwide have mobile phones, only 4.5 billion have access to toilets or latrines – meaning that 2.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have proper sanitation, according to UN figures. In addition, 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open.
Poor water and sanitation cost developing countries around $260 billion a year - 1.5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP), the UN reported, while every dollar invested could bring a five-fold return by keeping people healthy and productive.
Meanwhile, speaking to journalists in Geneva, Dr Chris Williams, Executive Director of the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), said it was “a call to action on sanitation and hygiene to focus our attention on its importance on its links to health, education, basic access to human rights as well as a focus on attendance at school and education.”
In some parts of the developing world, for example in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, access to sanitation has fallen from 38 per cent in 1990 to just 31 per cent today. Across the continent, the numbers lacking sanitation increased by 13.7 million to over 610 million people in the year 2010 to 2011.
Despite these obstacles, much progress has been made. Since 1990, 1.9 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation, he pointed out.
However, Williams warned: “The stark facts are that roughly 2.5 billion people lack adequate access to sanitation and hygiene, of which 526 million lacking access to sanitation defecate in the open.”
In July, the UN General Assembly unanimously declared today, November 19, as World Toilet Day. With good reason. A staggering third of humanity – 2.5 billion people – don’t have access to one of the most basic human and social needs – safe sanitation. “World Toilet Day,” the first-ever in the 68-year history of the United Nations is being marked by events around the world.
The resolution also recognizes the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations play in raising awareness of this issue. It also calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, and sewerage and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.
