Rwandan officials have said that without improved sanitation, the country will not attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the date agreed upon a decade ago at the Millennium Summit. National government officials have urged their local and regional counterparts to initiate programming that will improve clean water access and hygiene in their respective areas of responsibility.
Rwanda was commended by its African peers for the progress it has made on sanitation at the Second East African Sanitation Conference currently underway in Kampala, Uganda. Because it has increased both the number of safe latrines and the prevalence of soap for hand-washing in schools to 80%, Rwanda now has the potential to cut the number of diarrhoeal deaths among children by 40%. On the national level, since 2006, 65% of the population has had improved access to sanitation, with the most improvements seen in urban areas. These successes have been partially attributed to the country’s well-developed community-based health networks.
UNICEF officials have warned that without improved sanitation, child mortality in particular is unlikely to decline. Diarrhoeal diseases, caused by malnutrition, intestinal worms, water contamination and water-born diseases kill a child every 10 seconds. 2.4 million people in the world lack adequate sanitation, while 1 billion lack access to clean drinking water.
The MDGs are a set of benchmarks that that the international community can use to guide their development projects and programmes. As agreed upon at the Millennium Summit and in the Millennium Declaration, the 8 MDGs are:
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty;
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education;
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women;
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality;
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health;
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases;
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability; and
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.
The goal to improve sanitation is part of the seventh goal. However, the goals cannot be treated independently. Jamillah Mwanjisi, Executive Secretary of the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, highlighted the interdependence of the 8 MDGS. “It is not just one MDG but all. The poverty eradication goal for example, depends on improved access of water to poor people.”