HC Deb 06 November 2002 vol 392 c335W
Mr. Barnes

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department will be doing to make sure the target of halving the number of people without access to adequate sanitation by 2015 is met. [77703]

Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the target for halving the number of people without access to adequate sanitation by 2015 is met [77711]

Clare Short

We worked very hard to win international agreement to the sanitation target. Diarrhoeal disease accounts for over 2 million child deaths each year and this can be reduced by better hygiene practices, safer water supplies and provision of sanitation. Provision of access to safer water, basic sanitation and improved hygiene must be driven forward together to have the greatest impact in the health and livelihoods of the poor—more than half the world's population have no access to sanitation. My Department's bilateral expenditure on sanitation, hygiene promotion and clean water in the past three years is:

1999–2000 84.3 million
2000–2001 90.6 million
2001–2002 87.2 million

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