An Introduction to The Sanitation Crisis

The 24-hour accessibility to a supply of water has come to be taken for granted in most of the Global North. Admittedly, I could not imagine my life without the water infrastructure in place which allows my household to have clean water in abundance. Having recently watched a documentary detailing the life of Bill Gates, successful entrepreneur turned philanthropist, my eyes were opened to the difficulties of tackling a problem as intricate and widespread as poor sanitation. As I develop my blog, I will provide a comprehensive account of this global sanitation crisis, exploring what perpetuates the problem, the solutions, and the gendered dimension to sanitation. A report by WHO reveals that 2 billion people still do not have the most basic of sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines and there is an endless plethora of statistics available to show that unsafe water is at the core of this global sanitation crisis (WHO).

We often speak about worldwide disparities in water consumption, with the average per person usage in the US being 578 litres and in the same day in parts of Asia, people are using a mere 95 litres (WHO). Whilst this fact alone is awful, it is just as vital to highlight the likeliness that the little water people do have access to is unsafe. By definition, sanitation refers to ‘clean’ water, preventing the human contact with faeces, and appropriate sewage disposal. At least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by wastewater (WHO) and very often in the Global South, water is not necessarily synonymous with clean and safe water.

Tucker et al conducted a study in 2014 on the effects of poverty and seasonality on household water use in Ethiopia. This study attempted to fill the gaps in the knowledge surrounding patterns of available water and its usage in rural Africa. Particularly relevant to my blog is that during times of drought Tucker et al ascertained that water used for hygiene decreases steeply which could explain the health issues that are prevalent in that region. This creates further risks for health as unfortunately, less water is used for things like washing hands and cleaning food utensils. This is also largely due to the low levels of hygiene education meaning that the dangers are not necessarily common knowledge (Tucker, J. et al 2014)*.

Figure 1, provided by the UN, allows us to visualise how many people lack basic sanitation which leads to unsanitary and ultimately dangerous activities.

UN (figure 1)

‘Ending open defecation’ features first on the Unicef’s page for Water Sanitation and Hygiene, this comprises not only of the increased usage of toilets but also a change in behaviour and the betterment of education that surrounds it (Unicef). This draws on the faecal-oral paradigm, the human ingestion of faecal matter - water for consumption and waste disposal should be kept separate which is not always the case. Diarrhoea-related diseases are the number one reason for high child mortality rates across Africa and increased human exposure to clean environments is what Unicef is attempting to achieve. Throughout my precedent blogs I hope to grasp a deeper understanding of whether or not this is possible and if the current solutions are adequate in solving such a large-scale issue. 

*Tucker, J. et al., 2014. Household water use, poverty and seasonality: Wealth effects, labour constraints, and minimal consumption in Ethiopia. Water Resources and Rural Development, Vol. 3, 27-47.