This piece from ONE Mom Jennifer James was originally published on her blog earlier this week.
When I was in Kenya this past July on the ONE Moms trip, I had quite a rude awakening when we traveled to rural areas -– a lack of toilets. There were not very many places for us to use the bathroom, unless we wanted to go in the bush or use one of the local latrines.
On the first day in Kisumu, in the western part of Kenya, I was forced to choose between using a latrine or waiting to get to a local hospital. Deciding I couldn’t wait, I walked to the latrine with a few of the other moms. Upon stepping in, I could barely breathe — the latrine smelled entirely of feces and urine and I absolutely could not overcome the smell to use the bathroom. Little did I know that it was one of the more sanitary latrines I would encounter during our time in rural Kenya. In Kibera, the lack of access to proper toilets was noticeable as well with bags of feces lining the streets. It’s no wonder cholera outbreaks are frequent.
One of the most basic amenities that we take for granted here in the US today, it is difficult to even imagine what life would be like without the toilet. But for much of the developing world, there is no need to imagine, as life without adequate sanitation is both a common and dangerous reality. Often the hidden problems behind high child mortality rates, poor water quality and lack of safe waste disposal are known to cause a host of horrible, life-threatening diseases, including rotavirus, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis.
On the 10th anniversary of World Toilet Day, which takes place on November 19, we all have a chance to help make lack of clean water and adequate sanitation a thing of the past. To help you learn all about sanitation, here are three recommended videos:
Vanguard, a documentary series on Current TV, came out with this awesome 44-minute documentary on sanitation called “The World’s Toilet Crisis.” It’s raw, candid and highly persuasive in the argument that yes — everyone in the world should have a toilet! Watch it here:
Everybody poops. There, I said it. It’s a topic that not many like to talk about, but that is all about to change because today is World Toilet Day.
Did you know that 2.6 billion people — about a third of the world’s population — do not have somewhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet? The world is largely off track to meet UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, which aims to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation by 2015.
Ugandan woman scooping water from an unsafe source. Photo courtesy of RuralAid.
I know that 2.6 billion sounds like a big number, and we know that the MDGs are important, but for many of us living in developed countries, open defecation is simply out of our realm of comprehension. However, for many people living in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, this is a daily reality.
Globally, diarrhea is a leading cause of illness and death, with 88 percent of diarrheal deaths due to a lack of access to sanitation facilities compounded by unsafe drinking water and the unavailability of water for hygiene. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation — that’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
Not only does diarrhea kill more children each year than malaria or HIV/AIDS combined, but it causes millions of adults and children to miss work or school, which has enormous social, economic and political consequences. It is estimated that every $1 spent on water and sanitation generates returns of $8 in saved time, increased productivity and reduced health care costs.
For World Toilet Day, don’t be shy; help spread the word about the bathroom habits of the 2.6 billion people globally who lack access to basic sanitation. And, if you’re feeling extra bold, find an event near you to take part in The Big Squat — “a movement for the toilet-less.”
Recently on the ONE Blog we’ve been looking at some of the work going on as Haiti transitions toward long-term relief efforts to give the country a chance at a lasting recovery following last month’s catastrophic quake.
Today UNICEF has a post looking at an oft-overlooked yet important problem in Haiti– a lack of proper sanitation and needed latrines. You can read UNICEF’s report on this front here, and check out the video below:
ONE has partners on the ground in Turkey for the 5th World Water Forum. Our partners will be providing guest blog posts throughout the week to keep us updated on the meeting’s proceedings. Stay tuned for more in this series!
As I was quoted in the Associated Press the other day,“In America, diarrhea is bad takeout, in Chad, it’s the difference between life and death.”
I’m here at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul to help coordinate a journalist workshop on the health aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene. Journalists have come from as far away as Indonesia, Laos and Peru to learn about this massive, but surmountable, challenge.
We want to bring attention to this under-reported issue, as more children die of diarrhea and other water and sanitation related diseases than die of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Meanwhile, 80% of research and development funding for diseases that disproportionately affect the poor is spent on these “big three” diseases. We aim to point out this disparity, not to take away funding from the more well-known diseases, but to see that more resources go to solving the water and sanitation crisis.
What is also unique about preventing and treating diarrhea is that affordable solutions are available now. Ceramic water filters, rope pumps, and ecosan toilets are all effective and sustainable solutions.
Sessions this week at the World Water Forum are going to focus on vast array of topics, such as new technologies, entrepreneurship and child health. The issue of poor water and sanitation in schools will also be discussed by UNICEF. An astounding 50% of schools in the developing world do not have access to water and sanitation.
PATH, WSSCC (Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council), and Water Advocates are a few of the organizers of the journalist forum. We hope that the workshop and forum will increase attention on the health aspects of the water and sanitation crisis. With 5,000 people dying each day due to dirty water, and poor sanitation and hygiene, this cannot wait.
Last week, we wrote about World Toilet Day. John Sauer from Water Advocates passed along this great post about raising awareness for better sanitation practices, and what we can do to help:
Public indifference to the HIVAIDS epidemic was chronicled in 1987 in And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. As the author Randy Shilts lamented, “Everyone responded with an ordinary pace to an extraordinary situation.” Thankfully now there is attention to this deadly disease, but it wasn’t always the case.
Another pandemic—namely more than two dozen diseases associated with poor sanitation—now faces the same kind of unresponsiveness. Every 20 seconds a child dies of sanitation-related diseases, which kill five times as many children as HIVAIDS. As an article in the New England Journal of Medicine documents, pathogens that cause diarrheal diseases, tracoma, and guinea-worm are among the culprits. You didn’t think you can die of diarrhea did you? Well you probably can’t but those living where open defecation is the norm can. Human excrement: it is the last taboo.
Pushback on this topic is very real. A TIME Magazine review of Rose George’s new book on sanitation suggested that “a series of articles was plenty on this topic.” One US government official refused to release a statement on World Toilet Day because of objection to the word “toilet.” Progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without basic sanitation by 2015 will not be met, at current rates, until 2115. In fact, the original version of the MDGs didn’t have a sanitation target.
Did you know that today is World Toilet Day? Of course you did. And while this may seem a bit silly at first, it’s worth remembering how many lives are lost due to water and sanitation-related diseases each year—as many as 2 million, in fact.
Here are some other fast facts to keep in mind, as we commemorate World Toilet Day:
6 in every 10 Africans lack access to a proper toilet.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 322 million people lack access to clean water and 463 million people lack access to adequate sanitation.
Together, unclean water and poor sanitation are a leading cause of child mortality: an estimated 5,000 children die daily from diarrhea, which is spread through poor sanitation and poor hygiene. Universal access to improved sanitation could reduce diarrhea-related morbidity by more than a third.
Studies have found that about half of girls who drop out of primary school in sub-Saharan Africa do so because of a lack of separate toilets and easy access to safe water.
So have a chuckle if you’d like, but remember to be especially grateful if you’re blessed with proper and clean sanitation today—because many people, unfortunately, are not. You can find more articles about World Toilet Day here, here, and here.
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