When was the last time you thought about your toilet? If you’re anything like me, it was probably the last time you didn't have one around when you needed it. My dad likes to tease my sister by saying, “Does a Jenny* poop in the woods?”, a reference to a time during her childhood when she couldn't make it back to a bathroom while we were on a hike. While it has the intended effect and she always gets a little ruffled, most of us have probably used a bush, a tree, or the ground as a toilet at some point in our lives.
What most of us probably don’t consider, however, is the fact that a lack of toilets and other adequate sanitation facilities is a problem that affects about 2.5 billion people, around 37 percent of the global population.
Achieving increased access to adequate sanitation facilities is part of one of the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), goals formed by the UN to address issues such as poverty, health, and human rights in developing countries around the world. The deadline for these goals is this year, 2015, and the UN is now coming up with a new set of goals and targets moving forward called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the progress that has been made on the MDGs, there are still a variety of problems that have yet to be fixed in a variety of areas, including among many others, eradicating hunger and poverty, providing universal access to primary education, and preventing and treating many life-threatening diseases. Channeling resources into creating sustainable solutions to these issues is increasingly important in our globalized world, not only from a human rights standpoint but also in terms of creating agricultural and business practices that will allow the developing world to industrialize and grow their economies in a way that conserves existing resources and does not contribute to climate change. Going back to the toilets, then, addressing sanitation issues in developing countries is an issue I’d like to focus on, because it can not only contribute to achieving a variety of the SDGs, but it also was an MDG which lagged particularly behind.
I know sanitation isn’t really a sexy issue - it doesn’t have the appeal that feeding starving children or building schools seems to have for many of those with philanthropic tendencies. But here’s why it matters. Having adequate sanitation facilities prevents the spread of disease, which improves the overall well-being of the population. Also, estimates show that about forty billion working hours are spent each year collecting water in Africa – it is also estimated that every $1 spent on water and sanitation generates at least $4 of increased economic opportunity. Improving access to water for drinking and sanitation would save time and promote economic success, particularly for women, who are nearly always given responsibility for water acquisition and household hygiene maintenance and are therefore disproportionately affected by the issue and prevented from getting an education or entering the workforce.
Women also face challenges because of the need for private sanitation facilities, and many girls drop out of school once menstruation begins because of this problem – a school sanitation project in Bangladesh showed that access to separate facilities for girls increased their attendance by 11 percent. Being forced to resort to open defecation in many places such as India also leads to increased safety risks for women - all in all, if women around the world had the toilets that you or I likely take for granted, their would be significant improvements in women’s rights issues as well as overall economic success of developing countries.
In the end, having access to adequate sanitation facilities is a basic human need that many of us take for granted. I would encourage all of you to not only become more educated on this issue, but also consider donating to an organization that addresses this issue and contacting your representatives to get the U.S. to place an emphasis on this issue at the SDG talks when they gather for the UN Summit this coming September. While most of us may have pooped in the woods at some point in our life, no one should be left with no other option.
GET INVOLVED:
World Toilet Day is November 19, but you don't have to wait until then to make a difference for this cause! This is a great website to go to to get information on what you can do and who you can donate to - I'd encourage you to at least take a look and see what they have to offer!
References:
“UNICEF Water and Sanitation | Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.” UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/wash/ (April 3, 2015).
UN Women. 2012. “The Future Women Want: A Vision of Sustainable Development for All.”http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/media/publications/en/thefuturewomenwant.pdf.
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