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Committee: WHO Topic: Water Supply and Sanitation in South East Asia Country: Netherlands Lauren E. Period 3

I. Background Information

When we are thirsty we can go to the sink or a drinking fountain and be sure that we will get safe healthy water. But for billions of other people all around the world, they do not have access to this rarity that we take advantage of. Only 83 percent of the world’s population have access to water, and the majority of those are not clean. Even though some people have access to water, that doesn’t mean that it is safe. Only 58 percent of the population have access to sanitation facilities. That means that a total of 2.6 billions people live without clean water –less than half of all the people living in developing countries. 37 percent of South Asia doesn’t have insurance of safe clean water sources. Improving access to clean water and sanitation is crucial in enabling Asia to achieve sustainable economic prosperity and effectively eliminating poverty.

II. UN Involvement

WHO and UNICEF have both put tremendous efforts into improving the supply of clean water in South East Asia. Together their joint-monitoring program - JMP - is working to provide sanitation centers all over the world. The Asia Development Bank is also working toward the common goal of safe clean water sources for all. But the Bank is focused more on solving this solution for economic prosperity. The ADB has set a Millennium Development Goal and target for the access to clean water sources in Asia. They have set up a Water Financing Program from 2006-2010, which aims to double the Bank’s water investment over the next five years. They will set up grants for investment projects, knowledge management, technical assistance operations, and regional cooperation. IRC, the International Water and Sanitation Center is also involved in the extreme attempt to achieve clean water sources. They put together events that raise awareness of this tremendous problem and provide volunteers to go into the field. Their strategy focuses primarily on improving the performance of stakeholders in the sector by the development of platform for learning and sharing.

III. Country Policy and Involvement

The Netherlands would like to see improvements on this problem in the next two years. There is a UK/Netherland join water and sanitation initiative to help millions in Africa and Asia. They will spend 100 million on helping 20 poor countries to draft and implement their own water and sanitation plans, and another 6 million will be given to monitor their progress. Our country has undertaken a vow to provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation for at least 50 million people by 2015. We have already signed an agreement that will benefit almost 30 million people and cost about 13 billion. In total about 16 billion has been donated by the Netherlands to improve this situation in South East Asia.

IV. Solutions

Water Supply and Sanitation in South East Asia is a very serious issue and needs to be immediately addressed. This problem will never be solved unless equal cooperation from all countries is required. One of the biggest obstacles to sanitation throughout the world is the high cost of building and maintaining infrastructure. This can be fixed by investing in progress and research towards cheaper machines and devices that would clean and sanitize water sources. All of the countries around the world face this problem of water supply and sanitation- even if on different levels. The Netherlands believes that we all need to join together to battle this sever issue as a combined front, to be able to potentially eliminate this global issue.

V. Works Cited -http://www.mdgasiapacific.org/node/139 -http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_statistics.html -http://esa.un.org/techcoop/flagship.asp?Code=GAM92C01 -http://web.worldbank.org/EBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/EXTECARE GTOPWATSUPSAN/0,,menuPK:511327%7EpagePK:34004175%7EpiPK:34004435%7EtheSitePK:511321,00.html -http://www.irc.nl/docsearch/title/117439 -http://www.who.int/about/agenda/en/index.html