Water quality will be the focus of this year’s edition of World Water Day, held on March 22. In line with this topic, ONE DROP has chosen to call attention to access to sanitation, a largely unknown, yet crucial, issue.
Not having access to even the most basic of sanitation facilities such as toilets and safe water leads to a contamination of water and, in turn, to diseases that are often deadly. It also affects the dignity of individuals and is an obstacle to human and economic development.
To better grasp the importance of this issue, here are a few facts:
• In 2010, more than one person out of three (1/3) does not have access to toilets;
• Every day, 5,000 children die from diarrhea, a disease mainly caused by contaminated water;
• Every year, more than 3 million people die of diarrhea, dysentery and parasitic infections.
Specialists agree that sanitation is the most efficient public health means for reducing infant mortality. This is why the United Nations has included, as part of its Millennium Development Goals, the following goal: reducing by half, by 2016, the percentage of urban and rural populations that do not have access to sustainable supplies of potable water and basic sanitation facilities. However, judging by the efforts and investments that have been made so far, we will certainly not reach this objective in the near—or distant—future.
Haiti is a good example of this reality. Before the earthquake, only 1.7 million people, i.e. 19% of the population, had access to toilets. As the country is trying to recover from the earthquake's devastating effects, the situation is critical: almost all sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed. This is why, in cooperation with Oxfam-Québec, Project Haiti will essentially focus on sanitation.
In Haiti and elsewhere, not having access to sanitation is unacceptable. Water is a source of life. Let's work together and do what’s needed to ensure universal access to safe water.
Published on March 16, 2010