Bad WASH Conditions Effects on Community

Importance of Access to Sanitation Facilities and Clean Drinking Water

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) defines improved sanitation and drinking water as a "separation between human feces with human contact," and a "drinking water source protected from outside contamination, in particular from contamination with fecal matter."

At the end of 2013, 2.5 billion humans lacked access to an "improved sanitation facility," and 750 million lacked access to an "improved drinking water source".

Why is access to sanitation facilities and clean drinking water important? Diarrhea and pneumonia, the two leading causes of child death in the world today, are often caused by unimproved access to sanitation andclean drinking water. When children survive diarrheal disease, they are at higher risk of stunted growth, developmental delay, and malnutrition.

Even when sanitation and drinking water are improved, without proper handwashing with soap, very few improvements in public health are seen. This is due to fecal matter's transmission to food and water via food handling after personal restroom use and changing of baby's diapers.

Dr. Val Curtis and Dr. Sandy Cairncross, of the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, conducted intervention trials in 12 countries on the effects of washing hands with soap in communities ridden with diarrhea.Their studiesfound handwashing could reduce diarrhea risk by 47%. To ensure unbiased data collection, the subjects ranged from children in urban American daycares, to adults in rural Malaysian farming communities.

Historically, the global development's focus on improving sanitation, hygiene and drinking water services has been aimed at rural areas. However, now that the global urban populations have surpassed those of rural populations (54% of the global population living in urban areas, up from 34% in 1960) aid agencies have started to focusing on low-income urban areas.

It is to no surprise that these low-income urban areas lack access to improved sanitation and hygiene services to a greater extentthan regionswho's net-income places themhigher on the proverbial totem pole.

Access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation directly seeds from help at the municipal and state level. Similar to poverty-stricken areas within the United States that have a weakenedvoice in public affairs; where there are more potholes in streets, dirtier public restrooms, and less advanced public schools: political power can result in health, prosperity and over-all improved well-being.

These low-income urban areas around the globe have less financial assistance for even the simplest of public service, fecal sludge management (FSM) (not to mention schools and roads).

For example, the wastewater treatment plant in the town of Nakura, Kenya is managed by the municipal water and sanitation utility. The community holds the facility in high regard, however due to "funding constraints" the plant has been out of service since the beginning of 2014. The staff's only job is to direct FSM trucks where to dump their sludge. While the plant is out of service, the sludge goesthrough their system untreated, resulting inpolluted downstream surface water sources.

Not only does this happen in Nakura, Kenya's peri-urban areas, but all over the world—no matter the location: Brazil's favelas , India's slums, or Venezuela's caseríos .

Do not give up on humanity just yet, there is hope.

For the past 14 years the thousands of aid agencies attempting to tackle these problems have been guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

At the Millennium summit of the United Nations in 2000, 189 UN member states and 23 international organizations established eight international development goals following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

Source:Elephant Journal

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• Heath & Safety
• Water & Sanitation
• Water Supply