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New Year’s resolution on sanitation
2008 is the International Year of Sanitation - a unique opportunity to tackle a global crisis and save lives
01 January 2008
Today sees the launch of 2008, International Year of Sanitation, led by UNICEF and supported by a host of international donors and developing countries. The year aims to highlight the global sanitation crisis and move it higher up the political agenda.
A series of events throughout 2008 will show how sanitation makes a vital contribution to our lives on this planet - demonstrating how it is crucial for our health, wellbeing and dignity, and to social development, the economy and the environment. The central message of the year is that we face a global crisis - one that claims the life of a child somewhere in the world every 20 seconds - but it’s a crisis we can solve.
Even the most basic facilities can make all the difference. This latrine in Ethiopia's rural Oromia Province, pictured left, was constructed by digging a hole a few feet deep and covering it with locally sourced branches to act as a platform. The tree fronds make a visit to this latrine a private affair.
It’s different for girls
Water and sanitation are essential for a healthy, secure and dignified life. Yet over half the people in developing countries lack basic sanitation. Women and girls pay a particularly heavy price – many don’t go to school because there are no toilets for them to use.
Many avoid eating or drinking all day as they can only relieve themselves when it’s dark. As a result, their health suffers. And that’s why DFID is backing the International Year of Sanitation. Ensuring that everyone has access to sanitation is affordable – and evidence shows there’s a massive return in terms of transforming the lives of millions of people.
Affordable action
Sanitation generates economic benefits and helps fight poverty. According to recent World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, every dollar spent on sanitation generates an average economic benefit of $9. But the cost of inaction is far-reaching and substantial.
The WHO figures showed that investing in water, sanitation and hygiene education would provide 5.6 billion productive days - including 443 million school days - and that $229 billion dollars would be gained in terms of time saved alone. The cost of Peru's 1991 cholera outbreak was much greater than the cost of the sanitation that could have prevented it. The message is clear: failing to invest in sanitation undermines all other efforts to fight poverty and promote growth.
Understanding demand
It almost goes without saying that sanitation contributes to dignity and to
social development, especially for women and girls. Having a toilet in the home
is convenient, but it also might be a sign of social elevation. If the village
chief has a toilet, other members of the community may be inspired to
want one too.
People may want toilets because they have a clear understanding of the links between poor hygiene and disease. Or maybe they want toilets because they want to feel clean, or want to improve their immediate environment. Or perhaps they’re just fed up with the flies. Understanding poor people’s incentives for wanting better sanitation is crucial if we’re to help deliver effective support.
People have all sorts of different motivations for wanting better sanitation.
Reducing the number of flies is often top of people's lists.
Sanitation also makes a positive and very visible contribution to a healthier and more pleasant environment, uncontaminated by human waste.
Overcoming obstacles to better sanitation is about changing people's behaviour, and that takes time. That’s why we have to work effectively at community level. Local people know best what their communities need. They must be at the heart of decision making about sanitation and water. Experience shows that when communities are mobilised, change happens - and this is very empowering.
Working together
According to a poll conducted by the British Medical Journal, sanitation is the most important medical advance since the journal was first published in 1840. Sanitation, water and hygiene education are inextricably linked and all-pervasive. In order to meet the Millennium Development goals we need to work together, efficiently, across sectors, and we need to ensure that the right international structures are in place to deliver improvements. Sanitation may be a dirty business, but the time to act is upon us.
Learn more about the
International Year of Sanitation
Solving the great stenchLondon’s sanitation crisis was bought to a head in the 1850s when the smell from the River Thames was so bad that the windows in the Houses of Parliament had to be sealed against the stench. Cholera outbreaks between 1848 to 1866 claimed the lives of over 30,000 people. London doctor Jon Snow isolated the cholera outbreak in Broad Street, Soho, to one well. Snow removed the handle from the pump and so saved many lives. The sanitation crisis led directly to plans inspired by lawyer Edwin Chadwick and delivered by Joseph Bazalgette to create 1,240 miles of sewage tunnels. When the work was completed, London had some of the cleanest sewers in Europe. Source: The London Companion, Jo Swinnerton. |
Links
Read our case studies to find out how DFID has helped to bring better sanitation to Ethiopia, Iraq and Sierra Leone: