Unilever Solving Sanitation Crisis

Unilever's Current First Goal is to Add 25 Million Toileted People by 2020, as Part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

2.5 billion in the world have inadequate sanitation. For businesses, that's 2.5 billion opportunities to increase sales of infrastructure, plumbing, hygiene and cleaning products. Unilever has recognized the magnitude of the global sanitation crisis, the potential for solving it and helped lead the formation of theToilet Board Coalition(TBC) to do their part.

Speaking to Jean-Laurent Ingles, Global Senior VP of Household Care atUnilever, it is evident that senior Unilever executives have taken on tackling the global sanitation crisis with passionate commitment:

"This is right now one of the greatest world catastrophes… The environment is changing and more people are ready to act. People are now developing a better understanding of all the knock-on effects of inadequate sanitation such as: poor healthcare, lack of safety, women's safety, hindrances to education access, many associated problems for young menstruating women, children's development, nutrition."

Mr. Ingles who has been with Unilever since 1991 and is also Chairman of the TBC speaks candidly about the magnitude of the problem and the necessity to pool their resources to solve the problem: "The issue of sanitation is very complex. In order to address issues across the sanitation ecosystem, we need everyone at the table: people in government, corporations and NGOs."

In a column Mr. Ingleswrotein October 2014, he bluntly opened the article: "Poo. The topic that no one wants to talk about, yet one we must face up to. One child dies of diseases related to poor sanitation everytwo minutes."

The expanse of the sanitation crisis is vast. Consider the detail of hand washing after urination and defecation. Mr. Ingles notes that this is still "one of the cheapest and most cost effective health solutions." Selling more soap may be good for Unilever's business, but getting more people to use soap reduces health problems. According to the U.S.Center for Disease Control:

• It is estimated that washing hands with soap and water could reduce diarrheal disease-associated deaths by up to 50%.
• Researchers in London estimate that if everyone routinely washed their hands, a million deaths a year could be prevented.
• Handwashing can reduce the risk of respiratory infections by 16%.
• Trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, is related to the lack of facial hygiene.

The act of hand washing can reducethe load on countries' healthcare systems while increasing children and adults' number of healthy days at school or work. It is amazing to realize we live in a world where we have eradicated small pox but still have billions ofpeople who don't wash their hands after each urination or defecation because they find soap unaffordable, unavailable or too often have access yet don't know why they should use it. "Soap is touching 100s of millions of people lives, we are talking scale," says Mr. Ingles.

Unileverhas sought to be a leader in the global sanitation and hygiene crisis in many ways, both as part of the TBC and as a socially responsible corporation. TheirLifebuoysoap "aims to make a difference by creating accessible hygiene… [and] change the handwashing behaviour of 1 Billion people by 2015."

Urination and defecation are themselves words we don't like to read, according to theUnited Nationsabout 1 billion peopleof the 2.5 billion with inadequate sanitation have no facility to perform this basic human function. Thus, to say they are going to the toilet, the loo, the bathroom, the John, or any other such place is incorrect because the only place they "go" is outside.

Mr. Ingles strongly believes full sanitation access "should be a human right," Unilever's and his role in the TBC is to consider how to solve the sanitation crisis with sustainable business models. The TBC website takes all the data compiled by its many members and puts theinformationtransparently on the web so partners and outsiders alike can use the information to accomplish what the TBC seeks: "finding models that work and… ideas that can be scaled up by governments, members and outside organizations."

The sanitation crisis is multifaceted and the first distinction to be made is between urban issues and rural issues. Mr. Ingles synthesizes the difference between the two to, "the urban issue is where to put toilets, the rural issue is getting people to use them." Although hard to comprehend for people who have used toilets all their lives, there is a cultural need to educate people in rural settings to change the way they have always done things and that their life will be better if they do.

Source: Forbes

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• Water & Sanitation
• Sanitation & Hygiene