Better sanitation for better nutrition is the theme for this year’s world toilet day. World Toilet Day is hosted by the World Toilet Organisation to raise awareness that 2.4 billion people do not have access to flushing toilets and 1 billion people have no choice but to defecate outside. This leads to the spread of diarrhoea, worm infestations and other life-threatening diseases and conditions. Everyday 2,000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases, some 90% of these can be directly linked to contaminated water, lack of sanitation, or inadequate hygiene.
In the western world, it is hard to fathom functioning without a toilet. We seldom talk about their importance or even their existence. Their contribution to the world has been extraordinary – toilets have added 20 years to the average life span over the last 200 years. It was touted as the world’s most useful invention by The Economist.
It’s maddening to think that more people have access to a mobile phone, than to adequate sanitation. Yet improving sanitation makes such a profound difference on all of society.
It has been estimated that women and children without access to adequate facilities spend 97bn hours looking for a place to defecate in privacy. The searches are not only long, but dangerous. In search of privacy and dignity, the chance of rape and harassment increase. Many girls refuse to go to school, losing out on vital education due to lack of sufficient sanitation facilities, trapping generations in a vicious circle of poverty.
Investment in sanitation has proven to yield on average $4.3 in reduced health costs for every $1 invested. We must ask then, why sanitation conditions in some countries haven’t improved when the benefits seem so obvious?
Sanitation is a topic that is neither discussed enough nor placed high enough on the agenda; it’s often a taboo subject in a lot of contexts, and in a lot of cultures. It hasn’t been prioritised, but with a dedicated goal (SDG 6) on water and sanitation clearly setting out to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, more governments and policy makers will have to be accountable to make real change.
The relationship between poor sanitation and undernutrition is undeniable; studies in India have found that open defecation accounts for a majority of the excess stunting. In mountainous regions in Vietnam, children of five years of age have been found to be on average 3.7cm taller in places where the whole populous practices improved sanitation, in contrast to places where open defecation is still practised.
Nine out of 10 people who practice open defecation currently live in rural areas. However, by 2050 around 70% of people will be living in cities. Currently, 863 million people are estimated to be already living in city slums. They lack infrastructure, have no sewage systems, and along with being overcrowded, disease and illness spread quickly. Latrines are often constructed very close to water sources, and with heavy downpours latrines can become flooded and contaminate drinking water sources.
Improving sanitation standards is critical if we want to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people on our planet. Small scale solutions are beginning to take shape. In Dakar the government has come up with an innovative plan using the power of technology to improve sanitation. When latrines need to be emptied, residents can utilise a text service to create a bidding war between vendors to provide a service of collecting and emptying them. To date, the service has reduced the cost of waste removal dramatically and it is changing the dreadful reputation Dakar has when it comes to sanitation.
Small scale farmers are also beginning to harness their “poo potential”. Farmers like Ta Quang Nah in Vietnam are using their waste to turn it into their own supply of gas. Until recently, Ta Quang Nah and many others would have been encouraged to get rid of their waste to prevent the spread of disease, but utilising the waste in such a way not only takes away the health risks of poor sanitation, the returns from human waste could be an industry worth $9.5bn a year if taken to scale.
Every person should have access to proper sanitation and clean water. We know the benefit on communities and economies is tenfold. Giving humanity access to safe and nutritious food is about food production and access to clean sanitation and water is essential to improve the way we eat. Nutrition and sanitation are not two topics to be seen in isolation, they are very much interlinked and all initiatives should take both into consideration to reach the most vulnerable but also to make our world a safer and healthier place.
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