We are in the midst of a global water crisis. Across the globe, 900 million people live without access to clean drinking water, 2.5 billion people are without access to improved sanitation, and every 15 seconds a child dies from lack of access to safe water. We cannot hope to effectively fight poverty and increase economic productivity when, at any given time, half of the people in the developing world are sick from water-related disease. Something must be done.

Last month, I introduced H.R. 7180, the Water for the Poor Enhancement Act of 2008; Senator Richard Durbin [D-IL] has introduced identical legislation in the U.S. Senate. This bipartisan, non-ideological approach will increase and streamline clean water and sanitation development activities and foster strategic investments in on-the-ground expertise and low cost, high impact technologies.

The Water for the Poor Enhancement Act raises the visibility and priority of water issues in US diplomacy by establishing an Office of Water within USAID and by expanding the capacity of the State Department to oversee water issues. The bill also offers onsite training for local water and sanitation managers, and helps develop affordable technologies to ensure clean water access for countries with limited resources.

At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, the United States joined 185 other countries in a commitment to reduce the number of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation by 50%. To honor this commitment, I worked with Reps. Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde and Sens. Bill Frist and Harry Reid to enact the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which established water and sanitation as a cornerstone of United States foreign assistance efforts. We are now halfway to the 2015 date, and we must redouble our efforts. By 2030, 4 billion people – almost half the world’s projected population—will live in water-stressed areas. We cannot afford to lose more time.

With a $700 billion bailout for the nation’s financial firms and a trillion dollar war in Iraq, investing $11 billion to meet our commitment to the world’s poor becomes a moral imperative. Beyond the immeasurable benefit to human life, estimates suggest that every dollar invested in clean water and sanitation yields a rate of return of $3-$34, in terms of gained productivity and decreased medical costs.

H.R. 7180 will help the U.S. leverage development dollars in a smart and effective way. This legislation will help the US government pull together the pieces needed to implement a smart and efficient global water strategy. Above all, it will help us meet our commitment to extend safe drinking water and sanitation to over a billion people in need.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized .