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International Year of Sanitation (2008) The General Assembly of
the United Nations through its Resolution
A/C.2/61/L.16/Rev.1 declared 2008 as an International Year of
Sanitation (IYS) and requested UN DESA to serve as the focal point for
the year to develop, in a timely manner, relevant proposals on possible
activities on all levels, including possible sources of funding.
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Sanitation as a theme was discussed at the
twelfth
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development for the first
time. In the
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) adopted at the
World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) in 2002, sanitation-related goals are addressed
under the section on
Poverty Eradication. The JPOI target to halve the number of people
withoutaccess to basic sanitation by 2015 is closely related to the
Millennium Development Goal of reducing, by 2015, by half the proportion
of people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water.
The other goals and targets related to sanitation reflected in JPOI
include:
- Ensure, by the year 2025, that sanitation coverage is achieved in
all rural areas;
- Improve sanitation in public institutions, especially schools;
- Promote safe hygiene practices;
- Promote affordable and socially and culturally acceptable
technologies and practices;
- Integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies;
- Develop innovative financing and partnership mechanisms and
- Strengthen existing information networks.
In the pre-WSSD work of the Commission for Sustainable Development,
sanitation issues were mainly addressed in relation to waste. Sanitation
involves the adequate management and disposal of different types of
wastes with a view to minimizing harmful effects to human health and the
environment.
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