[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 166 (Wednesday, December 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     H.R. 2030, SENATOR PAUL SIMON WATER FOR THE WORLD ACT OF 2009

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I submit the following summary of the 
bill, H.R. 2030.
  The Water for the World Act sets a benchmark of providing 100 million 
of the world's poorest with first-time access to safe and sustainable 
drinking water and sanitation by 2015. To achieve this, the Act builds 
upon the success of the 2005 Water for the Poor Act by:
  Establishing a Senior Advisor for Water within USAID to implement 
country-specific water strategies;
  Creating a Special Coordinator for International Water within the 
State Department to coordinate the diplomatic policy of the U.S. with 
respect to global freshwater issues;
  Establishing programs in countries of greatest need that invest in 
local capacity, education, and coordination with US efforts; and
  Emphasizing cross-border and cross-discipline collaboration, as well 
as the utilization of low-cost technologies, such as hand washing 
stations and latrines.
  The Water for the World Act, S. 624/H.R. 2030, is endorsed by a 
number of global health and environmental advocates, including Water 
Advocates, the Natural Resources Defense Council, ONE, Mercy Corps, 
International Housing Coalition, CARE, and Population Services 
International.
  H.R. 2030 Co-sponsors: Democrats-87, Republicans-10.


                            Important Facts

  The number of children who die every day from diarrheal diseases 
spread through poor sanitation and hygiene: 4,100.
  Every day that Congress delays in addressing this problem, more 
children unnecessarily die. We have the moral obligation to get this 
legislation done.
  The annual economic benefit to the African continent, including in 
saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs if the 
Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation are met by 2015: 
$22 billion.
  The amount national governments in sub-Saharan Africa could save in 
annual public health expenditures if the Millennium Development Goals 
on water and sanitation are met by 2015: 12% (http://www.one.org/c/us/
pastcampaign/2789/).
  According to the World Health Organization, over 10% of the world's 
disease are caused purely by unsanitary water supplies.
  One billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and in 
the past ten years, everyone who has gained access to clean water in 
developing countries has lived in China or India, nations that are 
already rapidly improving their public water and sanitation systems.
  2.4 Million deaths are caused annually by poor water conditions (4.2% 
of all deaths), meaning over 65,000 people die everyday that this bill 
is not signed.
  In developing nations, only 5% of rural populations have access to 
plumbing and over 1 billion people still do not have access to a 
bathroom, spreading disease and infections.


                       Talking Points and Quotes

  Sustainable progress is about much more than water, but never about 
less.
  Water is medicine. Toilets are medicine. The best kind of medicine--
the kind that prevents African children from getting sick in the first 
place. We have known how to provide this medicine--safe water, 
sanitation, and handwashing, for centuries.
  As Martin Luther King, Jr. said: ``We will not be satisfied until 
justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty 
stream.''
  Supreme Court Justice Kennedy: ``This is not my area, but there are 6 
billion people on the planet and over 2 billion do not have adequate 
drinking water. How many hours--and you can't call it man hours because 
it's women's work--how many hours a year are spent in sub-Saharan 
Africa bringing water to the family? Answer: 16 billion hours--with a 
``b''--and that is the lowest estimate. For some people that's 6-8 
hours a day to get water for their family. You take a photo in sub-
Saharan Africa of the elegant, stately African woman with the long 
colored dress and the water jug on her head--that jug weighs more than 
the luggage allowance at the airport. The temptation of the rule of law 
is to say well, you have the Magna Carta, you wait 600 years, then you 
have a revolution, then a civil war. What about Martin Luther King, 
Jr.'s `fierce urgency of now'! These people cannot and will not wait 
and they should not.''
  The water crisis is a global phenomenon. Around the world today, 
nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean, safe water. More than 2 
billion people lack access to basic sanitation. Most of these people 
live on less than $2 a day.
  In Haiti, there are no public sewage treatment or disposal systems. 
Even in the capital, Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million people, the 
drainage canals are choked with garbage. It is no wonder that Haiti has 
the highest infant and child mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. 
One-third of Haiti's children do not live to see the age of 5. The 
leading killer? Water-borne diseases like hepatitis, typhoid, and 
diarrhea.
  In Sub-Saharan Africa, a lack of access to clean water enslaves poor 
women. Women and girls are forced to walk two or three hours, or more, 
in each direction, every day, to collect water that is often dirty and 
unsafe. The U.N. estimates that these women spend a total of 40 billion 
working hours each year collecting water. That is equivalent to all of 
the hours worked in France in a year.
  Water is even central to the fate of the Middle East. In his book, 
Paul Simon quoted former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as 
saying, ``If we solve every other problem in the Middle East but do not 
satisfactorily resolve the water problem, our region will explode. 
Peace will not be possible.''

                          ____________________