Water and Sanitation
Dan Haseltine, lead vocalist of Jars of Clay, tries to help readers visualize what it means to bring clean water to 1,000 communities in Africa.
If I asked you to think about 384 million people, would you be able to find an image in your minds eye? If I tried to get you to visualize 147 million orphan children, would you be able to conjure up such a picture? In the swirl and confusion of conversations about the US economy and budget cuts, as we use the disembodied language of millions and billions of dollars, do you have a picture in your mind of a giant pile of bills and coins? Most of us will never see a trail of that many zeroes in our own bank accounts.
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Indian women now have something new to add to their list of requirements for potential suitors: A toilet. In fact, having a personal toilet has become so important that it can actually make or break a marriage. “No loo? No I do,” declare the women of Haryana, a rural state in northeast India.
This chant comes in protest to the 665 million people in India who do not have access to toilets — the largest number worldwide. This has caused a serious problem, especially for females. In a culture that places a premium upon modesty, women are forced to travel very far to find privacy or go before sunrise and after sunset when the men are asleep.
As one woman notes, “It’s inconvenient, undignified and, at night, it’s not safe.” Not to mention, open defecation also leads to bacteria entering water sources. Ingesting this contaminated water is a serious cause of illness, most notably diarrheal disease — one of the top two killers of children.
To address this problem, India’s Ministry of Rural Development launched the “No Toilet? No Bride!” initiative as part of their Total Sanitation Campaign. The Ministry hoped to end open defecation and improve sanitation by linking the importance of toilets to marriage. A societal preference for boys has caused males to outnumber females. Because of this unequal gender ratio, women can be more selective when choosing a potential husband. Using this new position of power, females are now demanding that their spouses install a basic toilet. The Ministry of Rural Development backs up this demand by offering monetary incentives to any individual that builds a toilet. As a result of these efforts, more than 1.71 million toilets have been built across Haryana — meaning 98 percent of households now have toilets!
Although huge strides have been made in northeast India, hygiene and sanitation still remains a problem for the rest of the developing world. UNDP estimates that nearly 2.4 billion people still do not have access to hygienic sanitation facilities. Because of this, an average of 5,000 children die every day due to water and sanitation related diseases. This death toll will surely worsen if the Senate votes to slash our foreign aid budget.
The WHO has shown that every dollar invested in water and sanitation yields an economic return between $3 to $34. Please sign the petition today to ensure that cost-effective interventions are not cut. Children should not be dying from something as pointless as not having a toilet.
Here’s an update on the water and sanitation situation in Haiti from our resident expert, Brooke Riley.
As we look back over the last year in Haiti, we must acknowledge the critical role water and sanitation has played in the country historically and in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck one year ago.
Before the earthquake, 45 percent of the population lacked access to safe water, and a staggering 83 percent of the population lacked access to sanitation. The consequences of not having access to safe water and basic sanitation are enormous for the Haitian population. Even before the earthquake, diarrhea — which can result from consumption of contaminated water — killed one in five Haitian children each year.
The earthquake exacerbated the problems of an already weak infrastructure and highlighted the need for serious investments in the water and sanitation infrastructure in order to achieve health and economic gains. It is estimated that the earthquake caused $235 million in damages to water and sanitation facilities, and 437 settlements currently lack adequate sanitation. Even more disturbing, a severe and deadly cholera outbreak — which started in October and continues to plague the country today — has led to 171,304 cases and claimed the lives of 3,651 Haitians.
Although numerous challenges persist, there are many groups working hard every day in Haiti to bring clean water and sanitation to communities. While the task at hand is enormous, it’s encouraging to see the work that is being done across Haiti, including the installation of family latrines, promotion of hygiene practices and repair of water infrastructure systems. InterAction’s Haiti Aid Map provides an overview of all water and sanitation projects in the country and a description of each.
As advocates and activists, a lot of our support comes from actions that we take in front of our computers. Once we type in our names for a petition or click on a link, the issue is gone — unless we take the steps to stay connected, of course.
Screenshot of the site — pretty cool, right?
That’s why we’re really excited about Water.org’s latest project, my.Water.org. It’s an interactive online resource that allows people to see firsthand how water projects unfold in the real world, particularly in Haiti. You can choose a community and get weekly field reports — in the form of photos, videos and updates — from local certified partners as they deliver water solutions to the villagers.
In the Haitian village of Logalit, for example, you can find out how many households there are (60), how many of those households have latrines (46) and how many minutes it takes them to get to the nearest water source (up to 30!). You can even take a look at a photo of a villager grinding millet that reporter Kiki took just a couple of days ago.
If you have a moment, sign up for my.Water.org and play around on the website. It’s easy to use and you can even use your Facebook account to log in. And let us know what you think of the site in the comments below.
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.”
Here’s a blog post on the Haiti cholera outbreak from our friend Dr. Joia Mukherjee at Partners In Health (PIH). For the full post, check the PIH blog.
An outbreak of cholera has been documented in the area surrounding the lower Artibonite region of Haiti by the staff of PIH’s sister organization, Zanmi Lasante, which works with the Haitian Ministry of Health and other partners.
Cholera is a disease of poverty—and was one of the earliest documented public health problems. Cholera epidemics are caused by a lack of access to safe, clean water.
While Haiti has not had a documented case of cholera since the 1960s, the conditions in the lower Artibonite placed the region at high-risk for epidemics of cholera and other water-borne diseases even before the earthquake of January 12, 2010. We believe secure and free access to clean water is a basic human right that should be delivered through the public sector and that the international community’s failure to assist the government of Haiti in developing a safe water supply has been violation of this basic right.
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On Friday, I wrote about the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti and I wanted to update you all with developments from over the weekend. At least 253 people have died, and another 3,015 cases of cholera have been reported in the Lower Artibonite region, about 60 miles north of the capital Port-au-Prince.
The good news is that for now, the outbreak has been contained to the central and rural regions around the Artibonite River and has not reached Port-au-Prince, where crowded and unsanitary conditions in tent camps for earthquake survivors are highly favorable for the spread of cholera.
Additionally, the Haitian government, humanitarian community and aid agencies are all working closely together to continue monitoring the outbreak and provide necessary supplies such as soap, water purification tablets and rehydration salts to prevent new infections and aid the sick.
For those interested in learning more, check out the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) — they frequently post situational updates on their website.
