Tearfund research has found targets set to halve numbers of people unable to access a proper toilet are in massive danger of failing.
The Millennium Development goals planned to halve the number of people without adequate sanitation by 2015.
But Tearfund’s ‘Sanitation Scandal’ report highlights that 74 countries were no way near achieving the set goals. It says that in its current rate of progress it would take sub Saharan Africa 60 years to achieve the objectives.
Real experiences – the need to campaign
Former Tearfund worker Joy Andrew volunteers with partner Oasis in Mumbai, India and everyday sees the indignities countless people live with as a result of inadequate sanitation and clean water.
’My heart twisted when I saw a grown man squatting by the edge of a busy road to relieve himself. When home is a bit of scrubby wasteground under a flyover, what choice do you or your children have?’
‘Now I understand why people passionately campaign for people to get sanitation and access to clean water,’ says Joy. ‘Sometimes it takes a human face to bring the statistics and the issues to life.’
Lost education
Tearfund’s research also noted that more than 443 million school days are lost each year because of disease caused by diarrhoea. Children forced to use whatever space they can to go to the toilet often contract illness and as a result, miss their education.
Tearfund’s Andy Atkins (left) and TV presenter Adam Hart Davis (right) present the Sanitation Scandal report to MP Bill Cash (middle)
’The bus passes a shanty town on the outskirts of Mumbai - makeshift homes of plastic and wood,’ continues Joy. I often see children squatting here, leaving a series of brown piles along the length of the pavement, in full view of the rush hour traffic.’
Although lack of water and sanitation is a major contributor to disease and death around the world the issue does not find the same exposure amongst governments and this must change according to Laura Webster, policy Advisor at Tearfund.
The last taboo
‘Now that HIV/AIDS and sexual health are finally high on the global agenda, sanitation is the last taboo,’ says Laura.
‘Politicians in all countries must accept that they must address and allocate funding for sanitation promotion in order to prevent millions of preventable deaths across the developing world,’ she says.
Tearfund is part of the End Water Poverty campaign which wants the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States who meet to discuss economic concerns) to formulate a Global Action Plan on water and sanitation. Timely, as 2008 is the UN’s international year of sanitation.
Words: Rebecca Taylor
Photos: Geoff Crawford, Clive Mear