Women call for better sanitation

At a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in early October, 140 women representing 60 countries have called for research into the impact of toxic chemicals on the health of women and girls. They also urged governments to make funds available to associations of poor women for water, sanitation and ecosystems projects.
The WAVE assembly (Women as the Voice for the Environment) was sponsored by the UN Environment Program and the New York-based Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO). The assembly aimed to put women’s issues at the centre of the global effort to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty.
The assembly issued a manifesto to be given to governments attending the United Nations Environmental Program’s Governing Council in February 2005. The manifesto expressed deep concern over globalization and militarization, and the widening gap between rich and poor.
UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer said: “In the past, the role of women and their know-how has often been sidelined. I sincerely hope that our assembly signals an end to this gender apartheid. All too often women are treated like second-class citizens, with fewer rights and lower status than men. I hope we have now started a WAVE that will wash away the inequalities of the past and bring women into the centre of environment and development issues.”