The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
NAIROBI, KENYA: The Water Innovation Engine, a pioneering partnership led by the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to stimulate bold new ideas and approaches in the water sector, has launched the global "Urban Sanitation Challenge" with the announcement of a multi-million-dollar investment in five projects in Africa, Asia and South America.
The financial support helps advance the Japan-based manufacturer, LIXIL, towards its goal of providing safe sanitation to 100 million additional people by the end of 2020.
This is expected to accelerate world's pace towards a key United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for 2030: sanitation for all.
The projects include an innovative line of affordable plastic toilets equipped with a simple, gravity-powered self-closing trapdoor that makes pit latrine outhouses safer, more sanitary and less unpleasant.
The products, marketed under the SATO brand of Japan's LIXIL Group Corporation, are now being used in 14 countries, with more than 1.2 million toilets installed, improving the lives of 6 million people.
With the new funding, production will be scaled up to reach 15 million additional users. Across its global sanitation and hygiene activities, LIXIL aims to provide safe sanitation for 100 million additional people worldwide by the end of 2020 - a 4 percent reduction in the 2.3 billion worldwide who lack access to basic sanitation. That would represent a significant acceleration of the world's pace towards a key United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for 2030: sanitation for all.
Each year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. In 2015, 2.3 billion people still lacked even a basic sanitation service, and 892 million people still practiced open defecation.
Priced from Sh200 to Sh1000, depending on model and country, they use as little as 200 ml (less than a cup) of water, 80 percent less water than a flush toilet, put a barrier between fecal waste and people, block odours, flies and other disease vectors, and offer an effective, affordable way to mitigate the dangers and unpleasantness of typical pit latrines.
It is one of the initial projects scaled up under the Urban Sanitation Challenge. They will be funded by Grand Challenges Canada with the financial support of the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, together with a host of partners. The announcement was made during UN General Assembly meetings in New York City.
"The lack of sanitation has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable women and girls and leads to diarrhea, death and delayed child development," said Dr. Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. "Investing in safe urban sanitation is key to advancing gender equality, and to ensuring the health and well-being of every woman and every child."
The five projects, in Africa, Asia, and South America, will be scaled up with a total investment of CAD $8.7 million.
The Urban Sanitation Challenge, is led by Grand Challenges Canada.
join