Swiss Year of Sanitation Campaign
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Facilitating the implementation of the Swiss awareness and fund-raising campaign launched in support of the International Year of Sanitation.
Today, 2.5 billion people – approximately 40% of the world’s population - still lack access to basic sanitation facilities. To put the spotlight on this crucial issue the UN General Assembly declared the year 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. The goal is to raise awareness and to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. Switzerland participated in this initiative by raising awareness with a national campaign designed to outline the challenges of sanitation and to trigger practical improvements. This effort involved public- and private-sector partners, namely the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Federal Offices for the Environment (FOEN) and of Public Health (FOPH), the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), as well as the Swiss Water Pollution Control Association (VSA) and the “Groupement romand des exploitants de stations d'épuration” (GRESE). Skat assisted SDC in planning, coordinating and implementing the national campaign. Awareness raising materials have been developed such as a flyer and a website. Two itinerant exhibitions were on tour in Switzerland. Moreover, a number of actions have been successfully carried out such as the “sanitation weekend” on May 24/25 during which around 40 wastewater treatment plants across the country opened their doors to an enthusiastic public. More information on the campaign, on past and future events as well as documentation materials can be found on the following website http://www.sanitation2008.ch (in German, French and Italian). |
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24 & 25 May 2008 – Sanitation WeekendThe joint action of the 33 wastewater treatment plant operators who opened their doors to the public on the occasion of the Sanitation Weekend was one of the key events in the Swiss campaign.
More than 4,000 visitors took part with great enthusiasm in the passionate guided tours provided by the treatment plant operators. More than 30 articles, interviews and TV reports were disseminated by the Swiss media following the press conference organized on May 20th and the Sanitation Weekend.
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2009 and beyond?But the campaign did not stop there. Various awareness-raising events were organized during the summer, among others at the Open Air Music Festival in St. Gallen and at the Film Festival in Locarno. Moreover, a humorous, poetic and sometimes shocking exhibition staged by students from the Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL) on the topic of sanitation was displayed at the World Exhibition in Zaragoza, Spain, in September.
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