Europe Aid - brief summary of Dr. Koos Richelle and Gary Quince

Hi, last week I were in Bruxelles for the seminar "Water supply and wastewater treatment in EU external aid programmes". Here there where interesting presentations on different aspects on EU actions and funds.

Dr. Richelle, director general of Europe Aid (http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_it.htm), held an interesting presentation. He had talk about the MDGs-goal n. 7 and target 10 (halve by 2015 the proportion of people without basic sanitation), target 31 ( proportion of people with access to improved sanitation, urban and rural).

He also report that 2,5 billion of people do not have access to sanitation.

From 2004 to 2009 the EU Commission programmes with a budget of 2,145 euro billion, gave access to improved drinking water to 32 million of persons and improved sanitation facilities to 9,5 million persons (That's great!)

Dr. Quince, director of ACP area in Europe Aid, said that in 2009 were signed contracts under EDF for 4,3 euro billion, were lunched 75 tenders for

works contracts and 125 tenders for service contracts.

the United Nations MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

What about the Millenium Development goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals)....great targets but how many of these are really accessible with this Society?

for example the 2010 target 7B Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss:

• The world has missed the 2010 target for biodiversity conservation, with potentially grave consequences
• Key habitats for threatened species are not being adequately protected
• The number of species facing extinction is growing by the day, especially in developing countries
• Overexploitation of global fisheries has stabilized, but steep challenges remain to ensure their sustainability

and what about the Target 7.C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

• The world is on track to meet the drinking water target, though much remains to be done in some regions
• Accelerated and targeted efforts are needed to bring drinking water to all rural households
• Safe water supply remains a challenge in many parts of the world
• With half the population of developing regions without sanitation, the 2015 target appears to be out of reach
• Disparities in urban and rural sanitation coverage remain daunting
• Improvements in sanitation are bypassing the poor

For the target 7.C we are still on time to run this challenge... and treatment wetlands could be one of the right ways to reach the points above to improve the sanitation on rural areas