18:52 Mr Don Foster (Bath) (LD)

That warning becomes even more pressing in the context of climate change. The problem is not just hotter weather, causing more frequent droughts that in turn limit access to water. Climate change also disrupts weather patterns, resulting in more frequent and powerful floods. Flooding leads to overflowing latrines, contaminated drinking water, waterborne diseases such as cholera and all kinds of other sanitation problems. The problem is extremes of water shortage and water excess, and that problem will intensify as climate change continues to progress. That is part of the reason why we need to do even more.

Rather than discuss the work of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and his Department, however, I wish to concentrate on what I believe the Department for International Development can do. In recent years water and sanitation have not been given the priority that I would wish them to have. As a proportion of the UK’s aid budget, spending on water and sanitation has dwindled to just 2.2%, yet if I am right, and if water and sanitation are a vital plank in delivering all our aid goals, increasing the proportion of aid money dedicated to them would be money well spent. WaterAid made that argument powerfully in its recent submission to the Department—

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19:09 The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan)

Today I can outline seven principles of how we, the British Government, will respond to this global crisis. First, we will ensure excellence in our Department for International Development country office programming. A vital part of our efforts will be through our bilateral programmes. Our current programmes in Bangladesh will affect up to 30 million people by 2011. Our current programmes in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria will provide up to 17 million people with access. We will also be making new commitments under the bilateral aid review. We will of course ensure that there are sufficient and qualified staff in DFID country offices to deliver our programmes. There will be close co-ordination with our climate change work, including work on water management, and we will continue to ensure an excellent humanitarian response, dealing with issues of water storage, water supply, health care in emergencies and cholera pandemics.

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