国际环境卫生年

联合国宣布2008年为国际环卫年 ，并与“生命之水”國際行動十年一起举行。

联合国大会将2008年定为国际环卫年，主要是因为当今世界上有大约26亿人无法获得最基本的卫生设施。2008国际卫生环境年的目标是帮助人们察觉这一危机、加快达到联合国的千年发展目标（MDG）的速度和在2015年把无法获得基本的卫生设施的人数减至13亿。

历史

自从2000年联合国发布千年发展目标，公共卫生成为世界关心的重点。2002年，这些目标的进一步发展在约翰内斯堡举行的可持续发展世界首脑会议中提出，与列入获得卫生设施基本实现所有目标一起，来使贫困人数减少。约翰内斯堡计划中提出在2015年前减少无法获得基本的卫生设施的人数至13亿。

目标

实现卫生千年发展目标的进展一直很缓慢，而且世界不同地区发展的程度都各有不同。宣布2008年为国际卫生年的主要目的是为了帮助卫生千年发展目标回到正轨上来，在2015年前减少无法获得基本的卫生设施的人数至13亿。完成这一目标将需要联合国的各个机构密切合作，尤其是联合国经济和社会事务局和联合国儿童基金会，以及政府机构，非政府组织，私营公司，和学术界。

引言

• “Our work has shown that sanitation does improve health - simple achievable interventions reduce for example diarrhoeal disease by 391 million cases per year.” WHO. 2007

• “Basic knowledge and understanding about the connection between hygiene and disease can save lives. The simple act of washing hands with soap (or ash, or earth) and water after going to the toilet is estimated to reduce diarrhoeal disease by a third.” - WHO/UNICEF 2000 Human Waste Report. 2002

• “To reach the sanitation target means providing services to an additional 450,000 people a day until 2015. This calls for almost a doubling of the current efforts. On current trends, the world will miss the sanitation target by more than half a billion people.” WaterAid

• “Poor sanitation and water supplies are the engines that drive cycles of disease, poverty and powerlessness in developing nations. Action to improve sanitation is an important step to enable the poorest people to escape poverty.” - WaterAid and Tearfund. Human Waste Report 2002

• "It is clear that investing in sanitation generates massive returns on health, the environment and the economy. In fact, the overwhelming evidence is that there is no single development policy intervention that brings greater public health returns than investment in basic sanitation and hygiene practices. The UN estimates that for every $1 spent on sanitation, the return on investment is around $9." -WaterAid. End Water Poverty event welcomes the UN International Year of Sanitation. 2008