Local Liberal Democrat MP hits out at the 6,000 deaths a day caused by poor sanitation

6.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 27th Sep 2005

John Hemming MP at the World Toilet Summit

Speaking at the World Toilet Summit in Belfast, Birmingham Yardley Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming has hit out at the 6,000 deaths a day caused by poor sanitation Mr. Hemming said "The government like to look for complex solutions to simple problems. Half of the children that die in the developing world die from diarrhoeal diseases. That is around 6,000 children a day dying from entirely preventable diseases."

Mr. Hemming further said "The best mechanism for preventing infection is better sanitation. DFID itself tends to apply unnecessary world bank conditions to bilateral aid. These conditions which do apply for multilateral aid including the world bank prevent much action on sanitation. In any event Tony Blair's policy wonks find sanitation boring and ignore the need for better hygiene. I have backed 'Water Aid''s campaign to Make Poverty History through better health and hygiene. "

Stephen Turner of Water Aid said, "The World Toilet Summit in Belfast is an opportunity to raise awareness of an important global issue that has been ignored by other recent world summits. Diarrhoeal disease is the biggest single killer of children in poor countries, but government of both developed and developing countries are failing to prioritise sanitation in their development strategies."