Water and sanitation

Sanitation

Two and a half billion people have no access to basic sanitation.

Water and sanitation are closely linked, and it is often difficult to separate the two issues. We have to make that effort, however, because simply providing clean water does not resolve the many health problems and related issues that arise if sanitation is not available.

Improved sanitation cuts disease, saves thousands of lives each year and reduces healthcare costs by billions of pounds. However, it also provides a range of less obvious long-term benefits that can improve poor people’s quality of life, boost their levels of education and lift them out of poverty.

Women and girls in particular benefit greatly from better sanitation. Currently, a huge number of women without access to latrines have to wait until it is dark before going outside to defecate. This often means they have to go all day without using a toilet and risk damaging their health. And having to go out at night exposes them to sexual harassment and assault.

Installing toilets in schools has been shown to improve girls’ attendance – often by as much as major educational reform. In the mid 1990s, for example, UNICEF found that providing toilets in schools in Bangladesh boosted girls’ attendance by 11 per cent.

Reduced illness and improved levels of education make it easier for people to work and help themselves out of poverty. As part of our efforts to push sanitation higher up the agenda, DFID will stress all these benefits and spread the word about successful approaches.

What DFID is doing

The need to provide sanitation has been overshadowed in national and international policy making by a focus on providing clean water. The UK is working hard to put sanitation firmly back on the agenda. We used 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation as an opportunity to highlight the issue at the highest political levels.

At the same time, DFID is continuing to work with partners on the ground to promote sanitation and help communities to build toilets. We are also working hard to integrate sanitation with health and education programmes and to understand better what makes communities willing to adopt and maintain improved sanitation.

Within communities, it is not a subject that is easily raised. Overcoming this reluctance is important, however, because entire communities need to change their behaviour for sanitation measures to have an impact.

Even seemingly simple issues such as persuading people of the benefits of using latrines instead of defecating outside are difficult. DFID therefore supports a range of initiatives with health workers, school teachers, religious leaders, advocacy groups and people selling sanitation products. All these groups can help to communicate the benefits of sanitation to communities.

DFID’s recent water and sanitation policy (see below) sets out a plan of investment over the next five years. the plan will help 25 million more people across Africa gain access to safe water and basic sanitation and 30 million people in South Asia gain access to improved sanitation.

Links

• Water: An increasingly precious resource. Sanitation: A matter of dignity
• Research4development - Water and sanitation
• DFID Water and Sanitation Research from IDS Knowledge Services
• Cutting diarrhoeal diseases in the rural poor of Bangladesh
• Partnering for sustainable water supply and sanitation (PAWS)
• Rural Sanitation, Hygiene and Water Supply