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THE ANSWER TO POVERTY'S VICIOUS CIRCLE

Lindsay Schmidt* explains why sanitation is crucial to reducing poverty.

It is three am and time for her to get up.  After getting dressed and gathering her water carrier she begins a six kilometre journey to the nearest water source.  Though contaminated and unsafe to drink, it is all that is available and she must fight for her share.  After reaching the river, she proceeds to fill her jug and carry the now 20 kilogramme jug of water on her head or shoulder, all the while keeping an eye out for male predators.  

She fights the urge to urinate, as her only option is to go in a filthy 'latrine' or in an open area.  She eventually chooses the open area because the stench of the latrine is unbearable.  Meanwhile, a crowd of men gather to watch until she finishes.  Here, privacy is not a right, it is a privilege. 

She finally returns home, after her six hour journey, to children who are ill from diarrhoea, a result of the water she brings.  Because of the lack of access to clean water sources and basic sanitation, her children cannot attend school, she cannot earn an income to get her family out of poverty, and she has no way of gaining independence.  She and her children must continue trying to survive in a world where human dignity is under daily assault. 

Though this situation is hard to believe, for 2.5 billion people improved sanitation remains a dream that seems unachievable.  Likewise, 1.1 billion people live without access to safe water sources. Unfortunately, women not only have to worry about the cleanliness of the toilet but the safety of their children and themselves.  Women and children often wait until dark to defecate for the sake of increased privacy, but it often proves to make public latrines a preying ground for rapists.  Women every day have to accept that they are on public display in their most humiliating moments. 

According to WaterAid, throughout the course of our lives we will spend three years on the toilet, never thinking twice about how fortunate we are for having access to privacy.  In fact, the latest Joint Monitoring Program Assessment of Drinking Water and Sanitation reveals that 1.2 billion people have no facilities at all. 

From this information, the seriousness of sanitation in terms of world poverty is clear. In 2002 the United Nations recognised this, and added sanitation to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) which calls for ensuring environmental sustainability.  However, as we are now over half way to 2015, when the MDG goals are all to be met, the goal to halve the amount of people without access to basic sanitation is arguably the farthest from being achieved.  This is despite the fact that it is one of, if not, the least expensive to achieve.  In fact, it is not only the easiest to achieve, but the most profitable as well.  According to the WHO, achieving the MDG for sanitation would result in $6.6 billion gained through time, productivity, averted illness, and death and health expenses.

Aside from economics, the sociological, ecological and political ramifications that result from access to clean water and sanitation are astounding.  The impact that access to a private latrine has on women alone is overwhelming.  Not only do they gain independence due to the time they save from not having to fetch water or discretely find a latrine in the middle of the night, but they can educate their children, go to school when they are menstruating,   go to work and feel safer when away from home.  Sanitation can give women in developing countries a crucial foundation on which to build their lives, those of their children and their community.

Without sanitation and clean water, children are crippled as well.  End Water Poverty states that around 5,000 children die every day from water related diseases.  This means that the equivalent of 20 airliners filled with children are lost on a daily basis.  What is even harder to swallow is the idea that these deaths are entirely preventable.   According to the Joint Monitoring Programme, diarrhea is the most significant disease associated with unsafe water, sanitation or lack of hygiene and causes the deaths of 1.8 million people every year, 90 percent of which are children under the age of five.  This means that about 1.5 million children a year succumb to diarrhoeal diseases, four times more than the amount of children who die from HIV/AIDS. 

Even if children survive early childhood, their future is not guaranteed.  Many communities struggle to recruit teachers because of lack of sanitation.  If children are lucky enough to have a teacher, there are still complications.  Young girls often miss out on school when they menstruate because their schools do not have latrines.  Children would benefit most from the success of the MDG goal.  WHO estimates that 194 million school days would be gained each year if the sanitation goal was met.  This would only lead to better students, better schools, more teachers, and a more educated population, better equipped to develop economically.

Sanitation made it onto the agenda of the G8 Summit held in Japan this June.  Though it is a step in the right direction, leaders decided ultimately to dedicate funds to education.  Though education is undoubtedly an important issue, their donation reiterates the need for leaders to understand the link between water, sanitation, and education.  Until they do, we will continue to attempt fixing the roof when the leak is in the basement.  Without recognition of the world's sanitation crisis, developing countries will remain in the chains of poverty, women will be deprived of their dignity, and children will struggle to survive.

*Lindsay Schmidt is a US intern working for CIWEM.