CLOSE to one in two people in Asia - 1.8 billion people, do not have proper sanitation, making diarrhoea the top health problem for children because they are forced to drink polluted water.
The situation can only improve through political will, public education and open discussion on the unpalatable subject of sanitation, said Holland's crown prince Willem-Alexander at Singapore International Water Week yesterday.
'It is a very private matter and public discussion about toilets, sewage systems and personal hygiene can be challenging, said the prince, who chairs the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.
In Southeast Asia alone, 13 million tons of untreated faeces are released to inland water sources each year, along with 122 million cubic metres of urine and 11 billion cubic metres of grey water - water used in washing.
To improve the situation, his board, for example, has set up 'Water Operators Partnerships' to help public utilities connect and share experiences and knowledge on a non-profit basis.
A UN Millennium Development Goal is to halve, by 2015, the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Studies have found that while the world is on track to meet the drinking water target, based on current data, it will miss the sanitation target by more than 700 million people.
Noting that less than 5 per cent of consumed water is recycled, he said: 'The 95 per cent that is not recycled represents a tremendous opportunity to reduce pollution while simultaneously reclaiming the precious resources of water.'
Singapore is one of the best examples in the world where waste water is already recycled on a large scale, he added during his speech at the Ministerial Plenary session attended by ministers and delegates from around the world.
