Lenny Kravitz – GRAMMY award-winning singer-songwriter, record producer and actor—is using his voice and talent to do more than dazzle the stage and screen. He is throwing his support behind the global push by UNICEF and its partners to help save and improve the lives of millions of children and their families around the world by providing them with access to clean water and adequate sanitation.

“I was born in New York City and have always taken access to clean water as a given,” said Kravitz.  “No child should die of diarrhea from drinking dirty water. That thousands of children under the age of five continue to die every day because they lack clean water and basic sanitation is simply unacceptable.”

On March 6, UNICEF announced that the world has met the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water, with 89 percent of the global population now with access. However, that still leaves more than 780 million people, mainly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, without access.  In addition, around 2.5 billion people—almost half the developing world’s population—lack access to improved sanitation. This all adds up to bad news for the children who are being left behind.

Kravitz will be appearing in Public Service Announcements and take to Twitter and Facebook with a message that all children can—and must—have access to clean water and adequate sanitation. Kravitz, who recently released the album ‘Black and White America’, and who will be starring in ‘The Hunger Games’ later this month, is joining forces with UNICEF to help mark World Water Day (March 22) and will send a global message of the importance of investing in children and providing them with clean water and sanitation.

In the United States, Kravitz will be lending his support for the UNICEF Tap Project by encouraging his fans and dining patrons across the country to pay $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free during World Water Week, March 19 – 25. With $1, UNICEF can provide a child with access to clean, safe water for 40 days, or 40 children with access to safe water for one day. Funds raised through the 2012 UNICEF Tap Project will provide children and families with clean drinking water in Viet Nam,Togo, Mauritania and Cameroon.

Poor sanitation, water and hygiene have serious repercussions on a child’s health, often causing diarrhea and other easily preventable diseases.  Children, particularly girls, often miss school, because they are responsible for gathering water for their families, which can require many hours of their time. In addition, many schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities for girls, causing them to drop out of school. Without safe water, sanitation, and good hygiene, sustainable development is difficult to achieve.

Since 1990, UNICEF, governments and partners, have helped more than 2 billion people gain access to improved water sources and 1.8 billion people gain access to improved sanitation facilities. The efforts include drilling wells and installing water pumps, helping communities build latrines and teaching lifesaving hygiene to schoolchildren and mothers, and providing safe water and sanitation to communities during emergencies.

Image Courtesy of   vilena makarica / Shutterstock.com

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A strong contingent of 600 monks and nuns led by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa (spiritual head of the Drukpa Lineage) are on a Pad Yatra (walking pilgrimage) from Mumbai to Sanchi via Ajanta Ellora spreading the message of peace, harmony, goodwill and respect for the environment.

The Pad Yatra was formally flagged off from Mumbai, India’s corporate capital on 10th December. This Pad Yatra will pass through Ajanta Ellora (a UNESCO world heritage site) between 24th to 29th December, and ends in Bhopal on 6th January 2012. The walk will finally conclude formally in Delhi on 8th January with a public discourse by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa wherein he will again reinforce his message of respect for nature and the environment.

His Holiness is the recipient of United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) award for his efforts towards the environment. Earlier, in 2010, his Holiness had led a drive to safeguard the Himalayas by ensuring plantation of a million trees in the Ladakh region, a feat that was recognised by the Guinness World Records.

The total distance covered by these crusaders is over 1500 kilometres out of which around 750 kilometres would be on foot. Thousands of people, including 450 monks and nuns, followers and supporters are taking part in the Pad Yatra, along with various national and international celebrities and Drukpa followers.

During the Pad Yatra, the crusaders stay in either local schools, dharmashalas, or in the open, embraced by nature. They carry their own food items, cook at the halts, and also carry all other necessary items for daily usage and for sleeping. They continue to pick up eco-waste along the way, and so far, over 1 ton of eco-waste has been collected which is at various legs handed over to the local authorities for proper disposal.

This is the 5th Pad Yatra that His Holiness is undertaking. Since 2006, His Holiness has taken students on foot-journeys through Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Ladakh, Manali, Sikkim and Darjeeling; each time, the Yatris picked up more than one ton of non-biodegradable waste and educated people in the remote areas about the importance of keeping the environment clean and green for future generations.

The Pad Yatra, aiming to bridge spirituality and materialism through promoting a life in harmony with nature, will cover other notable destinations such as the Kanheri Caves, Elephanta Caves, Kondana Caves, Karjat, Rajmarchi, Karla Bhaja, and Aurangabad.

This uncommon Pad Yatra is a brainchild of His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa. Visiting power-places of great blessings, promoting awareness on environmental issues as well as encouraging spiritual development within oneself through familiarizing with the breath of nature are the things that His Holiness always does, on foot.

Talking about this quest and spiritual adventure, His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa said, “This Pad Yatra symbolises the journey from self to selflessness. On the personal side, this is an effort to come closer to nature and enjoy its bounty by way of an encounter of the close kind. On another front, this is an effort to raise awareness about the environment, and ensuring that there is widespread education on the various facets that focus on environment and sustainability subjects.”

ngarare / Shutterstock.com

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A new report Off-track, off-target, released by the international charity WaterAid, shows that there are more people in the world today lacking adequate sanitation services than in 1990. Unless urgent action is taken, nearly all governments in Sub-Saharan African will fail to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) pledge they made to halve the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015.

On the current trajectory, it will take over two centuries for Sub-Saharan Africa to meet its sanitation MDG target. What is more, only 20 countries in the region are on track to meet the water MDG target by 2015. All of this has massive consequences for child mortality in Africa.

Released a day before World Toilet Day, the report states that to get the sanitation and water MDGs back on track, countries in sub-Saharan Africa need to spend at least 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on these services. The report also calls on donor countries to double global aid flows to water, sanitation and hygiene by prioritizing an additional US$10 billion per year.

The report also identifies that it is Africa’s poorest people who are being left behind; poor people in Africa are five times less likely to have access to adequate sanitation and over 15 times more likely to practice open defecation than Africa’s rich. According to WaterAid, governments should tackle this inequity through better targeting of water and sanitation resources and services to the poor.

The WaterAid report highlights that the shortfall in water and sanitation services costs Sub-Saharan African countries around 5% of GDP each year ($47.7 billion in 2009), more than is provided in development aid to the entire continent ($47.6 billion in 2009).

In a coordinated move, an international group of 34 female economists have also written an open letter to the leaders of eleven donor and developing country governments, to draw attention to the international water and sanitation crisis. In it they state:

On the day you read this letter, 4,000 more children under five will die due to diseases brought about through unsafe water and poor sanitation. This equates to more child deaths than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, making it the biggest child killer in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Every $1 invested in water and sanitation generates on average an $8 return; making it the deal that will deliver for billions of the poorest people across the globe.

Barbara Frost, WaterAid’s Chief Executive, said:

“Governments in both donor and developing countries have it in their power to save hundreds of thousands of children’s lives every year by increasing what they spend on water and sanitation. Investments in these basic services are engines of economic growth and prosperity in developing countries, but unless we grasp this opportunity we will be failing the millions of poor people whose health, livelihoods and opportunities suffer because they lack these essential services.”

The Off-track, off-target report is being published on the day WaterAid launches the Water Works campaign to urge governments across the world to do more to tackle the water and sanitation crisis. The campaign aims to show world leaders that taps and toilets are simple, effective and affordable, and that investing in these basic human needs is an urgent priority.

On World Toilet Day, WaterAid will also join other members of the End Water Poverty campaign in 50 coordinated ‘Crisis Talk’ events in over 20 countries where local groups will be meeting with politicians to discuss the water and sanitation crisis.

In Tanzania, Crisis Talk events are being organized to coincide with the local government budgeting cycle; in the UK, WaterAid’s local supporter groups are meeting with their Members of Parliament; in Bangladesh regional events will be held where the public affected by poor water and sanitation provision will hold members of parliament to account.

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