By Kundan Pandey, Down to Earth, May 15, 2013,
Bangladesh,
Nepal and Pakistan do much better in improving access to sanitation
One-third
of the world’s population, about 2.4 billion people, will remain without access
to improved sanitation in 2015, according to a report recently published
jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations
International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF). The report says that three
south Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have shown
significant improvement in the past 20 years. In India, however, more than the
quarter of the population still practices open defecation.
The
report, titled Progress on sanitation and drinking-water 2013 update, warns
that at the current rate of progress, the 2015 Millennium Development Goal
(MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without sanitation compared to
1990 will be missed by 8 per cent – or half a billion people. The report, which
is based on data collected in 2011 with updated information, was published on
May 13.
East Asia
tops among good performers
While
three countries of South Asia – Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal – have been
deemed good performers, India has less than 50 per cent of its people using
improved sanitation (see figure 1).
Bangladesh,
with 32 per cent of total population practising open defecation in 1990, has
shown an annual decline of 9.9 per cent to a figure of 4 per cent in 2011 (see
table). Pakistan showed an annual decline rate of 3.9 per cent, lowering its
open defecation figures from 52 per cent to 29 per cent. Nepal too has lowered
its open defecation figures from 84 per cent of the population in 1990 to 43
per cent in 2011. This amounts to an annual decline rate of 3.2 per cent.
According
to a region-wide assessment, eastern Asia has performed better than any other
region in the world. The report says, “Greatest progress has been made in
eastern Asia, where sanitation cove-
-rage has increased from 27 per cent in 1990
to 67 per cent in 2011. This amounts to more than 626 million people gaining
access to improved sanitation facilities over a 21-year period.” (see figure 2)
Sanitation
for progress
“There is
an urgent need to ensure all the necessary pieces are in place – political
commitment, funding, leadership – so the world can accelerate progress and
reach the Millennium Development Goal sanitation target,” says Maria Neira, WHO
Director for Public Health and Environment. “The world can turn around and
transform the lives of millions who still do not have access to basic
sanitation. The rewards would be immense for health, ending poverty at its
source, and well-being,” she adds.
The
report echoes the urgent call to action by United Nations deputy
secretary-general Jan Eliasson for the world community to combine efforts and
end open defecation by 2025. With less than three years to go to reach the MDG
deadline, WHO and UNICEF have called for a final push to meet the sanitation
target.
"This
is an emergency no less horrifying than a massive earthquake or tsunami,"
says Sanjay Wijesekera, global head of UNICEF's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
(WASH) programme. “Every day hundreds of children are dying; every day
thousands of parents mourn their sons and daughters. We can and must act in the
face of this colossal daily human tragedy.”
Open
defecation due to lack of access to sanitation poses a hazard to public health.
Exposure to human excreta or its contamination of drinking water sources,
causes a host of illnesses such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, polio and
infections with E coli and tapeworm. Such exposure can even cause epidemics.
