Speakers:

Gareth Thomas MP, DFID Minister

Emanuele Lobina, University of Greenwich

Norah Odwesso, Diageo Africa

Chair: Malcolm Bruce MP, Chair, International Development Committee

Date: Wednesday 7 March, 2007

Time: 4pm to 6pm

Venue: Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Bridge Street, London SW1A 2LW (PLEASE NOTE ROOM CHANGE)

About this event:

Universal access to water and sanitation represents an urgent global priority. Currently, 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water, 2.4 billion people do not have basic sanitation and 6,000 children die daily because of water-related diseases. Over 300 million of these people live in Africa.

UN member states have committed to halving the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. At present however, many countries are set to fail. Meeting this goal means getting water to an extra 440,000 people every day, every week, every year for the next 10 years, at an annual cost of US$ 11.3 billion. This requires strong political and financial support for practical solutions.

This seminar will explore how governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, the private sector and local stakeholders can forge better partnerships to improve access to water and sanitation for the most vulnerable in Africa. The event is being sponsored by Diageo.

Download Gareth Thomas's Speech (30 kilobyte PDF)