Water and Sanitation

I recently made a display on the Millennium Development Goals and Water for my University’s Water Week, so I want to share with you some of what I’ve learned while making the display.

To read all the Millennium Development Goals and the specific targets for each one, please see my post on The Millennium Development Goals.

One of the Targets of Goal 7 is “To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. A progress report on this target was done in 2005, and that’s where most of the information below is from. You can see the whole report at http://www.unicef.org/wes/mdgreport/
These two targets are particularly important, both because of the direct positive effects of millions more people having access to safe drinking water, and proper sanitation facilities and education; and because they will significantly affect on our ability to achieve the other Millennium Development Goals.

What struck me, when I was reading this report, was how far reaching the effects of improper sanitation facilities and lack of access to safe drink water have, particularly on women and girls:“In some cultural settings where basic sanitation is lacking, women and girls have to rise before dawn, making their way in the darkness to fields, railroad tracks and roadsides to defecate in the open, knowing they may risk rape or other violence in the process. In such circumstances, women and girls often go the whole day without relieving themselves until night affords them the privacy of darkness. Sometimes, they limit their daytime intake of food and water so that they can make it until evening. Without toilets in schools, girls must go in the open – that is, if they are even allowed to attend. For many girls, the onset of adolescence means the end of school.”

Contribution of improved drinking water and sanitation to each Millennium Development Goal:

GOAL 1:Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
The security of household livelihoods rests on the health of its members; adults who are ill themselves or must care for sick children are less productive.
Illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation generate high health costs relative to income for the poor.
Healthy people are better able to absorb nutrients in food than those suffering from water-related diseases, particularly helminths, which rob their hosts of calories.
The time lost because of long-distance water collection and poor health contributes to poverty and reduced food security.

GOAL 2:Achieve Universal Primary Education
Improved health and reduced water-carrying burdens improve school attendance, especially among girls.
Having separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys in school increases girls’ attendance, especially after they enter adolescence.

GOAL 3:Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Reduced time, health and care-giving burdens from improved water services give women more time for productive endeavours, adult education and leisure.
Water sources and sanitation facilities closer to home put women and girls at less risk of assault while collecting water or searching for privacy.

GOAL 4:Reduce Child Mortality
Improved sanitation and drinking water sources reduce infant and child morbidity and mortality.

GOAL 5:Improve Maternal Health
Accessible sources of water reduce labour burdens and health problems resulting from water portage, reducing maternal mortality risks.
Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are needed in health-care facilities to ensure basic hygiene practices following delivery.

GOAL 6:Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
Safe drinking water and basic sanitation help prevent water-related diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, schistosomiasis, filariasis, trachoma and helminths.
The reliability of drinking water supplies and improved water management in human settlement areas reduce transmission risks of malaria and dengue fever.

GOAL 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Adequate treatment and disposal of wastewater contributes to better ecosystem conservation and less pressure on scarce freshwater resources. Careful use of water resources prevents contamination of groundwater and helps minimize the cost of water treatment.

GOAL 8:Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Development agendas and partnerships should recognize the fundamental role that safe drinking water and basic sanitation play in economic and social development.

Overall, if current trends continue, the global drinking water target will be reached by 2015 (although not all regions will meet the target on their own), but the global sanitation target will be missed by more than half a million people. This means that more pressure needs to be put on governments to follow through with their commitments - both in developing countries where the change needs to happen, and in developed countries who need to cancel the crippling debts of the poorest countries, as well as provide more aid, which fewer strings attached.

TAKE ACTION NOW! Send an email, or better yet a snail-mail letter (they have more impact), to your Head of Government (President or Prime Minister) letting them know that you support the Millennium Development Goals, and that you want them to live up to their promises. Also let them know why this target in particular is crucial to the success of all the other goals.

Prime Minister of Canada:
pm@pm.gc.ca
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0A2

President of the United States of America:
comments@whitehouse.gov
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

~Chris