Conferred On
31st October 2007, New Delhi, India.

Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council - Beginnings and Mandate

WSSCC was formally created in 1990 through a United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/RES/45/181), to complete work left unfinished at the close of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990). The role of the Council is to serve as international coordinating body to enhance collaboration in the water supply and sanitation sector, specifically in order to attain universal coverage of water and sanitation services for poor people around the world.

The WSSCC believes that sustainable water supply and sanitation are central to social and economic development which can best be achieved by integration of various agencies at grassroots, national and international levels. It pleads for the sharing of world’s resources and use of appropriate technologies. The reliable indicators of the progress of a nation are not arms and weapons, battles lost and won, but the literacy rate and access to sanitation facilities. It is the collective failure of the last three decades that today 2.6 billion people (or, 42% of world’s population) have no access to improved sanitation. The Council works to ensure that by 2025 every person in the world has these facilities. Since the number of people without sanitation is much greater than the number of people without water, the Council dedicates much of its efforts to promoting sanitation and hygiene. Potable water cannot be used more than is available in rivers and under the ground, but in case of sanitation, sky is the limit.

WSSCC has the VISION - 21 which puts people’s initiative at the centre of planning and action. The foundation of the Vision is the belief that water and sanitation are basic human rights. Together, they form a major component in poverty reduction. Such recognition will lead to greater participation by men and women, resulting in the acceptance and practice of hygiene, coupled with safe water and sanitation at the household level. The impact of WSSCC is global. A way to provide these is to spread awareness and knowledge. And, this is what the Council is doing with huge success.

The jury members of the Sulabh Global Sanitation Award have considered these facts and found that no achievement in the post-War world is greater than the attempt to improve the lives of the poor by doing simple things like keeping places clean and saving water. And, thus, save the world from yet another war which, it is feared, will be fought on water. For that matter, WSSCC is a peace - promoting global agency working to realize the dream of a conflict-free world which is the founding principle of the United Nations.

We join millions of men and women in the world to celebrate the success of this global UN agency and, in recognition of its signal services to the disadvantaged people, the Sulabh Global Sanitation Award is presented to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

Previous Year -  Sulabh Global Sanitation Award.