Dhaka for shared responsibility
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam has emphasised shared responsibility, sincere efforts and strong cooperation at regional and global levels to implement the water action under the SDGs.
He said these are also required to make international water decade a success, and to create a water-secure world for all.
The state minister was addressing an event titled “Launching of the International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development (2018-2028)” at the UN Headquarters.
This decade was launched on the occasion of “World Water Day”.
Shahriar Alam is representing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, one of the members of the UN Secretary General's High-level Panel on Water, at the event.
He said Bangladesh has earned global recognition as a champion for ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation for all.
“We always emphasised that proper management of rivers and water resources is closely linked to all sorts of development of Bangladesh. In a country of more than 160 million people, nearly everyone can access safe drinking water. Now, our target is to ensure direct access to safe drinking water for all by 2020.”
As for sanitation, 99 percent people of the country have been brought under sanitation coverage, said a press release. Of them, 61 percent people have been brought under cent percent healthy sanitation.
The rate of open defecation has dropped drastically below 1 percent during the last nine years, he added.
He also underscored the importance of implementing the SDG-6 in Bangladesh in his statement. “Our government has initiated a 100-year exemplary plan titled 'Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100' for the coordinated water resources management.”
The launching event was convened by Miroslav Lajcak, president of general assembly.
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