7/30/2019 IPS - Sanitation [Experts Call for All-Out Efforts]

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ASIA: Sanitation - Experts Call For All-Out EffortsBy Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 20 (IPS) - New technology, religion and the market must beharnessed to secure basic toilet facilities for Asias rural and urban poor,sanitation experts from the region said here Thursday.

Currently, over 2.6 billion people across the world have no access to an organisedsystem of toilets, of which some 1.5 billion people live in the Asia-Pacific region,states Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), aregional U.N. body based in Bangkok, which hosted a conference on sanitation.

And every year, over 200 million tonnes of human waste go uncollected anduntreated globally, adds ECSAP. This not only fouls the environment and spreadsdiseases, but forces the people with no access to toilets to live in deeper povertyand indignity.

If you want to solve the problem, you have to talk about the appropriatetechnology that works, said Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Indias SulabhSanitation and Social Reform Movement, in a keynote address. In many

developing countries, due to lack of affordable sanitation technology, sanitationcoverage was far below the level of satisfaction.

And for that, community involvement is a priority, since most of the people whoneed toilets are from the marginalised lower socio-economic sector, added Pathak,whose organisation has built 7,500 community toilets in India. It is still not seenas a high priority, resulting in absence of peoples participation.

Other experts, like Jack Sim, founder and current head of the Singapore-basedWorld Toilet Organisation (WTO), called for the poor to be viewed in differentlight if the current sanitation gap has to be bridged. We dont follow the donormodel, which requires the poor to be certified as useless to receive assistance.

His organisation has pushed the message for better sanitation using a marketingmodel, where the poor have to demand toilets. That includes teaching the

poor to be sanitation businessmen, said Sim.

The role of religion in influencing change of current toilet habits has to be roped

in, he added. Religion is a very good tool, because most religions say that whenyou come to God, you must come clean. We must try and leverage on this.

Other organisations, like the Seoul-based World Toilet Association, say that forthe world to achieve its current sanitation targets, discussion about toilets need to

be part of regular conversation. An open dialogue about toilets, a subject oftenavoided because of unpleasant associations, must be fostered, its states.Changing peoples perceptions and encouraging social action aimed atexpanding appropriate toilet facilities around the world is crucial.

The ESCAP event was part of the programme to mark World Water Day, whichfalls on Mar. 22. The emphasis on sanitation for this years event stems from 2008

being declared as the International Year of Sanitation.

Ensuring better sanitation, furthermore, is one of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs) that world leaders agreed at a 2000 U.N. summit to meet by 2015.Goal Seven of the MDGs eight goals was a pledge to halve by the deadline the

proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

The Asian continent offers a major challenge for such an ambitious developmentprogramme, since its is home to giants like China and India. China accounts for athird of the regions 1.5 billion people without safe sanitation, while Indiaaccounts for another third.

During a review of progress made half way into the MDGs timeline, the U.N.revealed that China had travelled less than half the distance to its target, whileIndia efforts were not enough to stay on track. Bangladesh, another populousSouth Asian nation, had also fallen behind, with the U.N. saying it too is offtrack.

Even smaller countries like Cambodia and Laos are burdened with a few toilets.Currently, only 17 percent of Cambodias rural population, where the majority ofthe countrys 14.8 million population live, have access to toilets, says NasirHassan of the World Health Organisation (WHO). In neighbouring Laos, only 30

percent of the population have access to basic sanitation.

By contrast, South-east Asian countries like Singapore and Brunei have 100percent sanitation coverage, while Thailand has 99 percent coverage andMalaysia, 94 percent.

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Yet Thailands success offered a note of caution, since it was not accompanied bya dramatic drop in water-borne diseases. Despite a near 100 percent sanitationcoverage, the morbidity rates did not come down, Dr. Twisuk Punpeng, a senioradvisor at Thailands ministry of public health, told IPS. New toilets alone willnot reduce morbidity rates. Good hygiene practices are also essential.

According to the U.N., the lack of basic sanitation leaves the worlds poorvulnerable to preventable diseases. Globally, one child dies every 20 seconds asa result of poor sanitation.

Diarrhoeal disease remains the leading killer of children under five years in theEast Asia and Pacific region, states the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF)in a document circulated at the conference. It is responsible for 187,000 deathsannually.

Poor sanitation in the region also affects education, adds UNICEF. Schoolenrolment is also affected as children, especially girls, are less likely to stay inschools without adequate water and safe, private sanitation and washingfacilities.

(END/2008)

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