The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Sanitation an important indicator of development”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
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New Delhi

“Sanitation an important indicator of development”

Staff Reporter

Former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam inaugurates World Toilet Summit-2007

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW VISTAS: Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam lighting a lamp to inaugurate the World Toilet Summit-2007 in New Delhi on Wednesday. Also seen are Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Union Minister Meira Kumar.

NEW DELHI: Former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on Wednesday said sanitation and health infrastructure are important indicators of development of a State and called upon governments, private sector, non-government organisations and corporate houses to make a combined effort to tackle the problem of poor sanitation.

“Everybody is aware of the magnitude of the problem of poor sanitation in the country and dedicated efforts are needed to address the issue. If the three Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Water Resource join hands, definitely they can provide all the people of the country with a sustainable toilet system,” said Dr. Kalam in his inaugural address at the World Toilet Summit-2007 at Vigyan Bhavan here.

Dr. Kalam administered an oath to the participants to affirm their “resolve to accelerate the sanitation coverage in our respective countries”.

Mr. Kalam also presented the Sulabh Global Sanitation Award to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council of Geneva. The award was received by the Executive Director of the Council, Jon Lane. The function also saw the release of a book, “From Darkness to Light”, based on the life of the founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, Bindeshwar Pathak.

Nearly 170 participants from abroad and 205 from India have registered for the summit.

“At this summit,” Dr. Pathak said, “we are going to discuss and present papers to decide how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on sanitation in a stipulated time set at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. Around 2.6 billion of the six billion people on this planet do not have access to safe and hygienic toilets and it was decided at the summit to provide toilets to half of the people by 2015.”

Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar said: “We need to discuss the quantum of work at this summit that needs to be done to expand sanitation facilities to every part of the globe. We also need to address the prevailing urban-rural divide in providing sanitation facilities.”