What's New

Tunis, 21 February 2007 — The government of Niger's efforts to improve the living conditions of the people have received a big boost from the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, following the approval of a grant to finance a water supply and sanitation project in three rural regions of the country. The Boards of Directors of the AfDB Group approved on Wednesday in Tunis, a grant of 14 million Units of Account,* equivalent to US$ 20.86 million (CFA 10.56 billion), to finance a Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Project in the country. The overall goal of the project is to improve the living conditions of rural communities by providing them with sustainable access to safe water and sanitation.

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Kenya: Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

In partnership with the Government of Kenya, CARE announced today the launch of a new program aimed at learning how to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for school children. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Water Challenge, the program known as SWASH+ (Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Plus Community Impact) will identify, develop, and test innovative school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in Kenya's Nyanza Province.

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GWC Highlighted in Pink Magazine

This article identifies the role that The Coca-Cola Company, CARE, UNICEF, and many other partners are playing to deliver clean water, sanitation and hygiene eduction through the work of the Global Water Challenge.

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UNICEF's Progress for Children Water & Sanitation Report Card

This report card, the fifth in a UNICEF series that monitors progress for children towards the MDGs, measures the world's performance in water and sanitation. It projects that, if current trends continue, the world is on track to meet the target for drinking water — though some countries and regions are lagging behind — but the target for sanitation appears distant.

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UNDP Releases Human Development Report 2006

In the early 21st Century, prospects for human development are threatened by a deepening global water crisis. Debunking the myth that the crisis is the result of scarcity, this report argues poverty, power and inequality are at the heart of the problem.

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Rapper Jay-Z Partners with United Nations and MTV to Raise Awareness of Water Crisis

SHAWN "JAY-Z" CARTER PARTNERS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS AND MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION ON A JOURNEY TO PERSONALLY WITNESS THE DEVASTATING WORLD WATER CRISIS

Expedition to Be Taped For an MTV News & Docs Special Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life to Air on MTV Friday, November 24

Initiative to Engage, Educate and Empower Young People to Take Action to Save Lives and the Planet

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Actor Matt Damon aims to create public awareness of the water crisis with H20 Africa

Actor Matt Damon went to the Sahara Desert to scout locations for a movie about long-distance runners. But when he got there, he took on another project: helping bring clean water to Africa. Damon and the production team behind the upcoming documentary, Running the Sahara, created a charity, H20 Africa, to accompany their filmmaking expedition. The filming got underway on November 2, 2006, in St. Louis, Senegal, with endurance runners Charlie Engle (USA), Ray Zahab (Canada) and Kevin Lin (Taiwan). Clean water lies at the crux of many challenges facing African people - from health, to education, to human rights. H2O Africa aims to create widespread public awareness of the water crisis in Africa and to gather support for sustainable and integrated clean water programs in critical areas. H2O Africa defines "sustainable" to mean that projects are accompanied by training and maintenance to create a program that will live for the long run. "Integrated" means that activities will complement other programs in the region, such as education and infrastructure development.

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GWC featured by the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College

All businesses depend on clean water for their preservation and growth. Water for production. Water for physical plant. Water for customers. Water for employees. Water for supply chain. The problem of unsafe water and poor sanitation is very much the business of business. The Global Water Challenge (GWC), a new initiative launched in late 2005, with significant business commitment, offering a "fresh approach" to providing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education in the developing world.

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