Tearfund Talks About Hidden Emergency in Poor Countries

Christian relief agency Tearfund noted at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester this week that the billions of people in the developing world without access to clean water and latrines represent a "hidden emergency".

In a meeting joined by Hilary Benn, International Development Secretary, Tearfund Advocacy Director Andy Atkins said that global targets to halve the 1.1 billion people without access to clean water and the 2.6 billion people without latrines by 2015 would be missed without greater global effort and investment.

"In Africa the water target is unlikely to be met until 2050 and the sanitation target by 2100. This represents a huge broken promise to the world's poor," he stated.

Atkins commended the British government on recent increases in its funding for water and sanitation, but added that much more could be done, including the Government using its influence to reverse the continuous global fall in aid for water and sanitation over the past five years. He added that Millennium Development Goals to increase access to health and education would be undermined without a much higher priority being given to water and sanitation.