Dr. Anne Peterson at the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Partnership Fair - 4/28/04

USAID Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health Anne Peterson spoke at the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Partnership Fair event organized by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. Dr. Peterson noted that improved sanitation and hygiene are critical - and within the health sector, neglected - public health interventions. She emphasized the importance of partnerships in addressing these issues, and made mention of both the Safe Water System Partnership and Safe Drinking Water Alliance as examples. The WASH event was well attended (over eighty participants), with high-level representation among both speakers and other participants. Among the participants were Mrs. Nani Annan, Ministers from Lesotho, Kenya, and Uganda, and heads or deputies of U.N. agencies including UNICEF, UN Habitat, and UNEP. Dr. Peterson used the occasion to announce a new USAID environmental health activity with an estimated $70 million component over nine years focused on hygiene and basic sanitation. A USAID press release on this new activity was timed to accompany this announcement. Sir Richard Jolly, who chaired the event, concluded by announcing a new initiative of the Council with the Global Water Partnership (GWP) to integrate sanitation into IWRM planning activities.

The WHO side event, "The Sanitation Challenge and the Rights-based Approach" covered both of the advertised themes. USAID Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health Anne Peterson set the stage for the first topic with an opening presentation on the role of partnerships in meeting the challenges of hygiene and sanitation. Notable speakers include Klaus Toepfer, head of UNEP, who praised the overall conduct of the CSD as a partnership-building event. [Again, this is consistent with the general positive buzz surrounding this CSD.] On rights, there seemed to be consensus among the speakers that having a "right" to something does need mean that it is a service to be provided for free, but rather that barriers to one's exercising such a right need to be removed. A distinction was made between arguments for the right to water as opposed to the right to sanitation. Since lack of sanitation in one household contaminates the environment for surrounding households, it was argued the right to a clean environment and the necessity of preventing disease transmission could be interpreted as implying a right to sanitation for all households. There was insufficient time to enter into a full discussion of this issue.