Response on Tearfund's "Congratulations on your new job" campaign
December 2008
Thank you for congratulating me on my appointment as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Development and calling for me to be a champion for people around the world who don’t have access to water and sanitation.
The British Government is committed to doing all it can to help people gain
access to clean water and basic sanitation. Almost 900 million people still lack
safe drinking water, and approximately 2.5 billion still have no basic
sanitation. This is a disgrace. It is also the reason why I shall be doing my
utmost to champion the cause of those in need of these basic essentials of life.
DFID launched its new water policy,
Water: An increasingly precious resource, Sanitation: A matter of dignity
(1.34MB)
in October 2008 and I am keen to ensure that we deliver on what we said we will
do in this policy. This includes a major commitment to providing more financial
resources to Africa, which should see up to 25 million people get access to
water and sanitation. We are also committed to provide 30 million more people
with access to sanitation in South Asia. And we announced increased efforts
toward managing water resources for poor people in South Asia and Africa to help
them adapt to climate change.
DFID has promoted and gained international agreement to a Global Framework for Action to tackle the global crisis in the water and sanitation sector. This seeks to improve global accountability linked to more action at country level.
I will be working with my officials to see how I and others can do even more in the future to meet this challenge.
Mike Foster
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development
