As
you will know, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad is a member of the coalition
of organizations who have been promoting the right to fresh water and
adequate sanitation for those who don't have it. The campaign is Water
Matters. Below is an excerpt from an email sent from Water Matters this
week:
"It is now exactly two weeks before the 2004 Federal
Budget is released on Tuesday May 11. This is a pivotal moment for the
Water Matters campaign that has consistently lobbied the Australian
Government for an increase in water and sanitation funding for the
world's poor in this Budget.
Please make a last minute effort to
nudge the Australian Government in the right direction, to pay our fair
share of the costs of bringing water to the world's water poor. A week
is a long time in politics, so it is not too late to make a difference.
Please write to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer or Treasurer Peter
Costello.
The Task
When
seven million of a city's inhabitants lack adequate sanitation; when
excrement degrades their environment and pollutes their water; when
women have to wait until nightfall to defecate or else defecate onto
sheets of paper; when hygiene-related disease continues to kill
children, and governments continue to build latrines that are filthy
and dilapidated within months, there comes a point when slum dwellers
need to do more than just keep begging for basic services.
Sheela Patel, Director of Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), Mumbai, India.
Useful Links:
Give Water -WaterAid