The Vancouver Sun
Blaise Salmon and Bob Dickson
Okay, let's be truthful -- it's a smelly subject. Not attractive dinner conversation, not high on thepolitical agenda.However, the most recent United Nations Human Development Report tells it like it is. "In the case ofsanitation, millions of people are paying every day for the failure to confront the problem, many ofthem with their lives."World Water Day, March 22, is an opportunity to draw attention to the global crisis in water andsanitation.Almost half the world's population, 2.6 billion people, lack access to even a simple pit latrine. One insix people, 1.1 billion, lack access to safe drinking water. The lack of access to these basicrequirements of healthy living is the world's most horrific and least reported humanitarian disaster.According to the World Health Organization, 4,500 children die daily from the consequences of unsafewater and sanitation and about 3.4 million children and adults perish annually.A century ago in Canada, similar conditions were common. Life expectancy was less than 50 years,not unlike many African countries today. Now, ours is over 80. The principal reason for the dramaticleap in average lifespan was the ability to tame the spread of infectious disease, in large part throughthe creation and proliferation of water purification and sewage systems.Where there are no toilets, people defecate in ditches, in plastic bags dumped into ditches or, at best,in dumpsites. In many of the world's largest urban slums, such as Kibera in Kenya, raw sewage iseverywhere and, when it rains, noxious black liquid flows into the streets, through people's homes andinto the local water supply.Poor sanitation causes a long list of health problems -- diarrhea (which kills 1.8 million children ayear), cholera, dysentery, trachoma (a leading cause of blindness), and worms, which lead tomalnutrition, anemia, and retarded mental and physical development.Further, the lack of adequate sanitation at schools throughout the developing world keeps manychildren, especially girls, from completing basic education.The international goal is to halve the proportion of people without basic water and sanitation by 2015.While the clean water goal is on track to be reached, the goal for sanitation is far off track.Basic sanitation means the first rung of the sanitation ladder -- simple pit latrines. These latrines costas little as $10 each. The whole community benefits from improvements -- when a household installsa latrine, it not only protects members of that family from contact with their own excreta but alsoprotects their neighbours.Hygiene education is a second essential element of the sanitation campaign. Programs in schools andclinics can promote simple hand washing with soap and water, and awareness of how disease istransmitted. The transition to simple, basic sanitation and hygiene improvements is accompanied by amore than 30-per –cent reduction in child mortality, according to the United Nations DevelopmentProgram.In November, the annual UN Human Development Report was released with the focus on the global waterand sanitation crisis. Due to the magnitude of this crisis, the report issued an urgent call for a GlobalAction Plan to be led by the G-8, the world's wealthiest countries -- the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain,France, Italy, Russia and Canada. The $10 billion US a year needed to halve the water and sanitationdeficit would be money well spent -- the financial returns in increased productivity and reduced healthcosts are estimated at $8 for each $1 invested.Unfortunately, Canada's development aid has almost ignored sanitation as an issue. The CanadianInternational Development Agency does not even keep figures on how much it spends to fundsanitation projects. The total amount Canada spends on water and sanitation projects combined is farless than the "fair share" amount needed to reach the international goal.The G-8 conference in Germany in June is the next opportunity for the world's most powerful countriesto take on our planet's most urgent development crisis. Canada must ensure that sanitation is high onthe agenda.As unsavoury as this topic may be to us in our protected and hygienic world, the bang for the buck isin the toilet.Blaise Salmon of Victoria is the national president of RESULTS, a volunteer organization committed toending the worst aspects of poverty, hunger and disease in our world. Dr. Bob Dickson is a familyphysician in Calgary and a volunteer with RESULTS.
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