Water Experts Appeal to Journalists to Save the World

By Nadia El-Awady
IOL Staff Writer

30/11/2004

Dakar, Senegal November 28 (IslamOnline.net) - At a time when more than 4000 children under the age of five

die every single day for lack of access to clean water and sanitation, and millions more are left severely debilitated and on the brink of survival, world renowned water experts are gathering in Dakar, Senegal to find solutions and initiate actions.

The Global WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Forum, to be held between November 29 and December 3, is organized by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), which kicked off its activities with a three day workshop for African journalists, as a prelude to the Forum.

“It’s up to [journalists] to change the world!” was the message enthusiastically given by UNICEF’s communication officer, Claire Hajaj, a journalist herself of many years. “There is no such thing as local media anymore,” said Hajaj to the journalists attending the workshop, held from November 26 to 28. A story appearing in local media is picked up by regional media, and eventually ends up in the New York Times, she explained. As a result, “governments discuss the things we write about,” she emphasized.

This was the prevailing message of the three day workshop: journalists can make a difference in the fight to provide water and sanitation for all.

Sharad Shankardass, spokesperson for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), explained that the number of people in need of water and sanitation must be halved, as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by the year 2015.

“Journalists need to help change policies,” said Shankardass. “Don’t underestimate your roles,” he emphasized.

Shankardass explained the importance that journalists look behind the statistics they are provided with by their governments. If the government says it has provided 90 percent coverage of sanitation, but there is only one toilet for every 700 people, it’s the journalist’s job to expose and combat that kind of practice, he explained.

Shankardass also emphasized how important it is for journalists to encourage their communities to think of new and innovative ways of solving their problems. “The poor may not have money, but they have sweat equity,” he said.

Timeyin Uwejamomere of WaterAid Nigeria, also had a message for journalists. We see so many journalists that write articles that merely quote experts by writing, ‘he said, he said, he said’; go to the sources, go on the field! said Uwejamomere. He emphasized the importance of putting a human face to stories while covering water and sanitation issues. “Let the voices of the people be heard,” he said.

Uwejamomere also touched on an issue that is more and more frequently being brought up in journalists’ meetings and workshops, and that is journalistic integrity in receiving what he referred to as “the brown envelope”. Journalists are frequently invited by organizations to attend their functions and report on them, and in return receive payment, he explained. Rather than that sort of coverage of issues, journalists should be covering what’s actually happening on the ground, he said. “Don’t just listen to governments’ positions. Call governments to account,” he stressed.

Journalists attending the conference, although in agreement on the importance of covering water and sanitation issues on the ground, admitted that the logistics involved complicate matters.

Samsam Dongo Kambou, a television journalist in Burkina Faso, explained the difficulties of mobilizing a television team to cover an issue on the ground. “A greater price is involved,” he explained, as you need at the least a journalist, a camera man and a sound specialist to cover any story. You also need a car and a driver to carry the team and its equipment to the site of the story. “Journalists have wonderful ideas, and good will, but it’s difficult,” he said regretfully.

Kambou also added that the monopoly some African governments have on television channels diminishes the amount of competition and thus good quality programming. Private television coverage in Burkina Faso was small, he explained, and thus advertisers were not interested in advertising in the private television channels. The result is thus poor funding.

Workshop participants also emphasized the common misconception by newspaper editors that environmental stories don’t sell. Darryl D’Monte, chairman of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists, said that in fact, according to a global environmental survey, environment figured among the top three to five concerns of the general public.

The lack of market research on target audiences was also mentioned by Nadia El-Awady, IslamOnline.net’s science editor, as a reason why editors are unaware of their audiences’ reading preferences. She also pointed out that the science pages of IslamOnline.net were among the most well-read amidst the Web site’s plethora of material. This, she believed, was an important indication of the fact that scientific and environmental stories do sell, and are of interest to audiences.  

Okwy Iroegbu, senior correspondent for Nigeria’s New Age daily newspaper, added that, in order to sell environmental stories, they sometimes need to paint them with politics. El-Awady agreed that this does sell environmental stories, and that quite often her Web site looks at the science behind the political stories, to entice readers into becoming more interested in the scientific or environmental issues at hand.

With more than half the poor of the developing world ill, at any one time, from causes related to hygiene, sanitation and water supply; with the majority of illness in the world caused by fecal matter; with a billion people living without safe, plentiful water – to drink, to wash hands, face and body, to wash and rinse clothes, to brush teeth, to cook food, to clean homes and kitchens; with two and a half billion people living their lives without a clean, private place to defecate and urinate; journalists have an important role to play to raise levels of awareness among the general public and even more importantly among policy makers. Hopefully, this is the message that African journalists will return home with.  

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