HC Deb 15 May 2003 vol 405 cc398-9W
Mr. Lazarowicz

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department has taken to encourage the treatment of domestic and village waste in the most impoverished countries. [111855]

Hilary Benn

DFID is advocating an integrated approach to environmental health to improve health and combat poverty. The challenge today is to build upon models of best practice to expand service delivery in solid waste management, sanitation coverage, access to clean water and hygiene education.

DFID adopted the target of reducing by half the proportion of people without access to hygienic sanitation facilities by 2015 in the Target Strategy Paper 'Addressing the Water Crisis', produced in March 2001. We worked hard to win international agreement to this target at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and will continue to emphasise sustainable and pro-poor sanitation and hygiene programmes.

Through our commitment to multi-lateral initiatives and bi-lateral agreements we are prioritising support to national governments and civil society organisations to accelerate work in environmental health in the countries of greatest need. In particular, we currently support comprehensive solid waste management programmes in a number of countries including Egypt, West Bank/Gaza, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Caribbean.

DFID also funds Resource Centres dedicated to enhancing communication, knowledge transfer and co-operation between DFID, its developing country partners and other organisations in the fields of environmental health, water supply and sanitation. We continue to push

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