Water / Sanitation Bloggers: bloggers call March 24, 930am EST

Attention all water/sanitation bloggers: just got this from USAID:

Dear Friends of the Global Health and Water Community:

This week USAID commemorates World Water Day and World TB Day. We invite you to join us for a bloggers call this Thursday, at 9:30AM EST to speak with Christian Holmes, Global Water Coordinator and John Borrazzo, Chief of the Maternal and Child Health Division at USAID about USAID’s programs in these two key areas of health. If you can make it please e-mail me back at larodriguez@usaid.gov to RSVP.

Call information is as follows for tomorrow’s call:

Participant Dial-In Number(s):
• US/Canada Dial-in #: (800) 994-6668
• Int’l/Local Dial-In #: (706) 634-4940
Conference ID: 54500521

Here is some information on both days, hope you can make it!

World Water Day

Water covers almost three-quarters of the earth’s surface – yet nearly 1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water. In just 20 years, the world’s demand for freshwater will outstrip supply by 40 percent.

Those without safe water and sanitation are likely to be poor, hungry, and malnourished. Each day, thousands of people, mostly children under 5, die from preventable diarrheal diseases. The increasing scarcity of safe water, combined with rapid worldwide population growth and environmental degradation, is also contributing to biodiversity loss and food insecurity. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by the lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Women and girls often spend hours a day collecting water, foregoing other economic and educational opportunities, and girls often drop out of school because of the lack of adequate sanitation.

Learn more about USAID's water programs. Read more on USAID's World Water Day page.

World TB Day

Tuberculosis has always been the signature disease of the urban poor. In a world that is urbanizing at a rate of 200,000 (people) every day, we must fight TB now before it becomes an unparalleled global killer. The frightening growth of drug-resistant strains of TB—some of which cannot be treated—make the case for combating the disease even more compelling.

Today, the world commemorates World Tuberculosis (TB) Day by celebrating the tremendous progress that has been made in combatting this disease. Milestones include a 35 percent decline in mortality since 1990, a 14 percent decrease in the prevalence of TB between 1990 and 2009, and the emergence of new diagnostic technologies that can detect multi-drug resistant TB. Learn more about USAID’s TB programs.