U.S. Government Should Fully Fund, Prioritize Global WASH Efforts

USA TODAY: Make water a top global priority. It’s the best, cheapest way to save lives: Frist
Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate majority leader, and founder and chair of Hope Through Healing Hands

“…[T]he health intervention that has saved more lives than any other in recorded history remains alarmingly absent in global health care. … We call it WASH — water, sanitation, and hygiene. … The U.S. Agency for International Development needs to continue to elevate the central importance of WASH in its overall work and adopt an agency-wide policy that WASH be made available in every health care facility in which the agency is active. America alone cannot solve this problem — and we won’t solve it sitting inside our silos. We must lead a collaborative global effort to secure shared financing from governments, nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and private donors, and it needs to cut across the health, development, water, and finance sectors. Federal budgets are tight, which is precisely why, at this time of budget concerns and global health threats, Congress should fully fund WASH, and our government should specifically prioritize it in foreign assistance. It’s highly effective, cost-efficient, and quite literally a life saver” (8/15).

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