WASH Disaster Threatens Humanity
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Social
UN Deputy Secretary General Says Failure to Address Sanitation and Open Defecation Is a Threat for Third of Humanity
The world's lack of progress in building toilets and ending open defecation is having a "staggering" effect on the health, safety, education, prosperity and dignity of 2.5 billion people, the UN deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson, has warned.
Speaking as the UN prepares to debate a new set of development goals - and in the aftermath ofthe rape and murder of two Indian girls who were attacked as they ventured into a field to relieve themselves- Eliasson said failure to address the issue of sanitation would prove disastrous for a third of humanity.
Eliasson said building toilets for women was fundamental to gender equality, education - and safety. "In Africa, in particular, there is an unfortunate situation where girls don't have toilets in their schools," he said. "It's very easy to arrange them for the boys, but girls require more privacy. And then you get into the area that we saw in that horrible example in India, when the girls went out at night and were raped and killed. This is done in innumerable cases: men preying on young girls who are going out like that."
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- Sanitation & Hygiene