By Rich Bowden:

A UN-sponsored report has listed nine recommendations for world Governments and NGOs to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sanitation.

Eight overarching MDGs were set by the United Nations at the turn of the century and include goals to reduce by 50 percent by 2015 the number of people in each country who lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

While goals on increased access to safe drinking water will be largely met in many developing countries, according to UN sources, efforts to achieve the improved sanitation goal have fallen behind said the report. The provision of adequate sanitation facilities has been unable to keep up with demand fuelled by a burgeoning global population growth and an unwillingness in many areas to tackle a taboo social topic, it states.

The UNU-INWEH report, quoting UN statistics, says the global target for access to sanitation will fall short by around a billion people. UN health sources estimate that poor sanitation is responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million children per year with some 443 million school days lost due to water-borne diseases.

The UN policy brief, released by the United Nations University’s Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), points out that progress on access to safe drinking water does not translate into an increase in those with access to proper sanitation facilities. It uses nine listed recommendations in the study to help focus goals on sanitation.

Among these points, the study calls for a new target above and beyond the 50 percent goal by 2015 to aim for 100 percent sanitation coverage by 2025.

The UNU-INWEH’s Director and co-author of the study, Dr Zafar Adeel, said the investment needed by donor countries to achieve this aim was minimal though said “smart investment” was needed to not just provide sanitation facilities, but to improve the local economy.

“…a commitment could and should be made to 100 percent coverage by 2025, at an annual cost of 0.002% of GDP from donor countries,” said Adeel.

“However, there is a need for smart investment of these funds – initiatives that develop the market at the bottom of the pyramid and initiatives that facilitate local business development and entrepreneurism,
It is not simply a question of sanitation provisioning, but strengthening the local economy,” he added.

According to the report, the cost of building a toilet is around $300, a price which includes labour,
materials and advice. Globally the UNU estimates $358 billion funding on sanitation will be required to meet the 2015 MDGs and adds that some of this funding has already been made available at national and international levels.

However Dr Adeel described the long-term benefits of investment in sanitation facilities as both necessary and an “economic and humanitarian opportunity.”

“The world can expect, however, a return of between $3 and $34 for every dollar spent on sanitation, realized through reduced poverty and health costs and higher productivity – an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions,” said Dr. Adeel in a statement.

The Institute’s director also added that education on sanitation issues was vital.

“Popular education about the health dangers of poor sanitation is also needed,” he said.

“But this simple measure could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve
health and help pull [countries] out of poverty than any alternative investment. It can also serve as a very significant boost to the local economy,” he said.

He added that “…a focus on drinking water alone does not necessarily result in improved access to sanitation,” and social taboos surrounding the subject of sanitation must be tackled as an “…immediate investment priority.”

The report’s nine-point plan also recommends a holistic, community-driven approach, with a need to, “Empower local communities (not just households) to identify needs, change behaviour, create demand for ownership and overcome obstacles such as land tenure.”

Dr Adeel pointed out the “knock-on” effects of improved access to sanitation facilities by saying that control of sewage into water sources was one of the best methods to protect waterways from pollution.

“Not only is sanitation critical for dignity and health, it is the most basic form of source water protection –without controlling inputs of raw sewage into water bodies, drinking water treatment processes have to
be unnecessarily more effective and water-based economic activities are compromised,” he said.

Other UNU recommendations include; a coordinated response from national NGOs to the sanitation crisis; the development of a new business model designed to develop markets for the water-sanitation-hygiene triangle and access to sanitation to be redefined with regard to gender, economic realities and environmental constraints.

Co-author of the report Corinne Shuster-Wallace of UNU-INWEH said: “Sanitation for all is not only achievable, but necessary. There is a moral, civil, political and economic need to bring adequate sanitation to the global population.”

Tags: MDG sanitation, sanitation UN, UN-INWEH, Water