WORLD WATER DAY - TORIES’ DECISION TO SLASH AID BUDGET A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Today is World Water Day and in a debate to mark this, I challenged the UK Government on its disgraceful decision to cut the international aid budget when the world’s poorest people are most in need of support.

It is shameful that while every other G7 country has responded to the Covid19 pandemic by increasing aid, the UK Government are alone in choosing to cut it by approximately £4 billion this year, after a cut of £2.9 billion last year. This decision will be hugely detrimental to the world’s poorest, who are suffering and dying without vital access to this natural and essential resource and disproportionately impacts on girls and women. For example in sub-Saharan Africa women and girls spend 40 billion working hours a year collecting water—time that therefore cannot be spent participating in education or employment.

The UK Government must urgently reverse this decision and commit to supporting the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to sanitation by 2030, so that millions of preventable deaths worldwide can be avoided.

Please click and listen to my speech below for more details.