FIONA MARKS WORLD WATER DAY WITH A BOTTLE OF POND WATER (Fiona Hall MEP)

Fiona Hall MEP <info@fionahall.org.uk>

FIONA MARKS WORLD WATER DAY WITH A BOTTLE OF POND WATER

March 21, 2007 12:00 AM

Fiona with a bottle of water, collected from a pond outside the European Parliament, Brussels

Fiona Hall is calling on the Government to live up to its spending promises on water.

The European Development spokesperson has posted a photo of pond water on the Water Aid photo gallery of "water you wouldn't drink". . She said:

"For many people the local pond is the only way to get water.

"I filled a bottle up from a pond near the European Parliament in Brussels and added it to Water Aid's gallery of "water that you wouldn't drink " .

"5000 children die every day as a result of drinking dirty water. They have no choice but to drink from contaminated sources. "

Speaking at the Lib Dem Conference in Harrogate earlier this month, the Member of European Parliament called on the Government to do more to help the billions of people who still do not have secure access to clean drinking water.

She said:

"Progress when it arrives can be dramatic. In July last year I visited a huge water project in the Democratic Republic of Congo , involving water being piped from under the bed of the Congo river as well as a completely new distribution system. When that comes on tap, 8 million residents in the capital city Kinshasa will get clean water at a stroke.

"But water and sanitation services are not reaching everyone, especially those in some of Africa's remote and arid areas where the poorest communities live, and where government services do not penetrate.

"That is why local and community schemes are so vital. Our government must fulfil its promise to fund these."