25 July 2012: The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, has called on the Government of Kiribati to urgently address safe water and sanitation, by allocating necessary human and financial resources to a Government department that would be responsible for sanitation. Kiribati has the highest child mortality rate in the Pacific region, she noted, and sanitation and hygiene must be improved in order to reduce preventable deaths of children. In order to fulfill Kiribatians’ human right to sufficient water for drinking and personal and domestic use, the Special Rapporteur said, the country must increase its rainwater harvesting and storage capacity, and reserve groundwater sources. [UN Press Release]