U.K.'s DfID, USAID, others announce commitments to improving water, sanitation worldwide

U.K. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell on Friday "announced a doubling of the U.K.'s effort to provide clean water and sanitation to the world's poorest countries," the Guardian reports (Elliot, 4/20). At a High-Level Meeting on Water and Sanitation in Washington, D.C., Mitchell "announced that the U.K., through [the Department for International Development (DfID)], would double the number of people it reached with aid in water, sanitation and hygiene education in the next two years, going from 30 to 60 million people globally by 2015," according to a UNICEF press release (4/20). 

Also at the meeting, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced that the agency "has joined the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership," which "brings together governments, donors, civil society organizations, and development partners to achieve sustainable sanitation and drinking water," a USAID press release notes (4/20). At the meeting, "ministers from 40 developing countries and donors ... together made commitments to design innovative new projects, work with the private sector and NGOs and extend access to improve drinking water sources and sanitation facilities to millions more people in the next two years," the UNICEF press release states (4/20).