Australia is awarding 31 million Australian dollars (USD25.9 million) to 44 projects aimed at providing poor people in four global regions with access to basic sanitation services and safe drinking water, Australia’s parliamentary secretary for international development assistance Bob McMullan announced on June 5, World Environment Day.
“Improving hygiene behaviour and access to clean water and sanitation services is crucial to raising the health and living standards of people living in developing countries,” McMullan said in a press release.
He noted that a sixth of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific have no access to a toilet, and more than 600 million people in these areas lack daily access to clean drinking water.
These regions, he added, see 1.2 million deaths annually from diarrhea, a disease directly blamed on the lack of clean water and sanitation services.
The grants will be drawn from the Civil Society Water and Hygiene Fund and will benefit the following countries: Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The grant recipients include the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Australian Red Cross, CARE Australia, East Meets West Foundation, Live and Learn Environmental Education, Oxfam Australia, Plan Australia, SNV Netherlands, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, WaterAid Australia, and World Vision Australia.
