Millions of Children and Adults Perish Annually Due to Unsafe Water and Sanitation
The World Health Organization says 4,500 children die daily from the consequences of unsafe water and sanitation and about 3.4 million children and adults perish annually.
Almost half the world’s population, 2.6 billion people, lack access to basic sanitation. One in six people, 1.1 billion, lack access to safe drinking water. The lack of access to these basic requirements of healthy living is the world’s most horrific and least reported humanitarian disaster.
A century ago in Canada, similar conditions were common. Life expectancy was less than 50 years, similar to many African countries today. Now, ours is over 80. The principal reason for the dramatic leap in average lifespan was the ability to tame the spread of infectious disease, in large part through the creation and proliferation of water purification and sewage systems.
The health problems caused by poor sanitation are ubiquitous. It is responsible for a broad range of disorders such as diarrhea (one of the world’s most insidious killers of children), cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, dysentery and worm diseases. Intestinal worms lead to malnutrition, anemia and retarded growth, both mental and physical. Trachoma, an eye infection that thrives where sanitation is lacking, is a leading cause of blindness.
Bilharzia, a debilitating illness for tens of millions of people each year caused by a parasitic worm, would essentially disappear with even basic sanitation. And the lack of adequate sanitation at schools throughout the developing world keeps many children, especially girls, from completing basic education.
There is less than a decade left until the target date of 2015 for the Millennium Development Goals, the international targets for global poverty reduction signed by 191 countries in the year 2000. The goal of halving the proportion of people without basic sanitation is the least likely of all to be achieved. This is in marked contrast to the steady progress being made in providing clean water. The goal of halving the proportion of people without access to clean water by 2015 is on track to be achieved.
Therefore, the most urgent need is for a rapid increase in the scale and effectiveness of sanitation programs. Achieving this will require bringing improved sanitation to 120 million people every year between now and 2015. Even if that was accomplished, 1.9 billion people would still be without access.
Filed under Health
