Government cuts to water projects are astonishing
THE news that the UK Government is set to slash bilateral funding for overseas water and commensurate sanitation projects by an outstandingly reckless 80% is astonishing.
How can the executive even think that this is somehow a good idea? We have been reminded many times of the importance of washing our hands and paying attention to personal hygiene in the fight against the Covid virus.
Surely it takes little forsight to realise that there is no sense in closing the “front door” if the “back door is to be kicked even further open.”
Apparently the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office has said that “tough and necessary decisions” are being made due to Covid-19’s financial impact.
This is amazingly short sighted because one thing is for sure in such an interconnected world, the virus and its hideous variants will proliferate and threaten much of the progress that has been painfully and sacrificially gained to date.
It will also cause great grief and extra hardship for those countries which have tried hard to improve the supply of drinkable clean water, and suitable sanitation.
Such short sightedness will not only endanger so many so unnecessarily, it will have the opposite financial impact to the one given in the leaked memo.