STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The 2008 World Water Week opened with powerful statements from political leaders and 2400 assembled experts declaring that leadership at all levels must prioritise sanitation or the world will fail to achieve its Millennium Development Goals.

The Opening Session of the global summit in the economic and political center of Sweden gathered heads of state, academia, environmental and corporate leaders to augment action to the needs of some 2.5 billion people who live without sanitation and to stop the 5 million preventable deaths that occur each year as a result of unsanitary water.

Speakers, including H.E Marc Ravalomanana, President of Madagascar, H.R.H Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Prof. John Anthony Allan, called to raise the sanitation and hygiene issues at all levels of government.

"Governments, donor agencies and financial institutions, local authorities and municipalities, headmasters in schools and husbands in families - everyone needs to start prioritising sanitation," said Stockholm International Water Institute Executive Director Anders Berntell.

The proportion of people with sanitation coverage has increased from 54 to 62 percent from 1990 to 2006, but at the current rate of progress on the Millennium Development Goal sanitation target – to halve by 2015, the number of people without access to safe sanitation – will be missed by 700 million people.

Investment in sanitation and hygiene was claimed to reduce poverty and hunger, promote primary education, build gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and prevents water pollution.

Speakers sought to push progress through the 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm and the UN International Year of Sanitation, by "breaking the sanitation taboo and bringing unmentionable subjects like toilets and faeces into the open," said H.R.H Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

They also warned that population growth, increased demand for food and bioenergy and climate change increase stress on water resources. "Behind the food crisis is a global freshwater crisis, expected to rapidly worsen as climate change impacts intensify," said WWF International Director General Mr. James Leape. Measures to improve water productivity, reduce waste, effectively use trade, protect ecosystems and adapt to climate change will be pushed throughout the week.
Daryl d’Monte for VoyageFilm

About the event:
The World Water Week in Stockholm, hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute is the leading annual meeting place in water and development. The 2008 World Water Week, themed "Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation," takes place at the Stockholm International Fairs and Conference Center, August 17-23. Professionals from business, government, civil society and over 200 convening organisations will address a number of water-related topics, including climate change, water management, ecosystems, business and finance issues. The Stockholm Water Prize, Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Stockholm Industry Water Award, Swedish Baltic Sea Water Award, and WASH Media Awards will all be presented during the week.

For more information, contact:
Stephanie Blenckner, Acting Communications Director, SIWI, +46 (0)8-522 139 86, stephanie.blenckner@siwi.org; Josh Paglia, SIWI +46 (0)8-522 139 96, josh.paglia@siwi.org