Earlier this year, we ran a series of posts exploring linkages between water, sanitation and maternal health. WASH for Mothers included issues such as health systems, integrating maternal care and water delivery, and infection prevention, among others.
This week, GlobalPost interviewed Ambassador Jan Eliasson, the former President of the United Nations General Assembly and Sweden’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs, about a growing population and the MDGs. One of the prominent topics involved clean water and maternal health:
I see progress on water, but I see great problems on sanitation. At the rate we’re going, countries may have to wait for over 100 years for the sanitation MDG goals to be achieved. Toilets are more of a taboo than clean drinking water. But if we expand access to clean drinking water, then maternal health will improve dramatically. So many women are dying in childbirth because of lack of clean water.