Russia prepared to help provide developing countries with drinking water

Russia is prepared to give assistance in providing developing countries with drinking water. This question was discussed on the first day of the G-8 summit, a source in the Russian delegation told the RIA Novosti correspondent. As the source noted, the Russian president said this in a speech at the summit.

According to the source, newest technologies, space ones in particular, must be used for meeting the developing countries' growing requirements for drinking water. The agency's interlocutor recalled that Russia already boasts of serious advances in the search for sources of drinking water.

The problems of developing countries, of the participation of the international community in resolving the problems of poverty and of improvement of the situation in the spheres of health and education were first of all discussed on the first day of the summit.

Russia makes a concrete contribution to the improvement of the poorest African countries' financial situation, the interlocutor noted. For instance, Russia has rescheduled and written off more than 10 billion dollars of the African countries' debt.

In keeping with the decisions of the summit in Genoa, Russia has made a contribution to the formation of the international fund for combating the HIV infection.

Besides that, Moscow attaches great importance to the assistance to developing countries in the fields of education and medicine. Hundreds of students from the world's poorest countries study in Russia on state scholarships. Russia backed the Italian initiative to use the advances of telemedicine for helping the poorest countries.