Literature Review
Ensuring water sanitation and hygiene has been one of the main targets of UNICEF. The large percentage of the global population lacks basic access to the necessary hygiene and sanitation facilities and poverty has been attributed to be the main reason for this global situation. Bartram and Cairncross, (2010) has stated that by increasing the global access to safe water and sanitation facilities, a lot of water borne diseases and illnesses could be mitigated and this would help in increasing the life expectancy of people living is poor third world nations where there is little or no access to proper education and healthcare facilities. The personal hygiene and sanitation facilities are considered to be an important yardstick for evaluating the overall economic progress and growth of any nation. Improved sanitation facilities are found to have a significant impact on the economic conditions of people and their overall physical health. Scientific evidence has suggested that the economic impacts/consequences arising out of poor sanitation facilities are substantial and failure to meet the water and sanitation targets assigned as part of MDGs are going to have an economic ramification in the range of $38 billion.
Theme 1 – Economic Impacts of Sanitation in the developing Countries
Peal et al., (2010) has described that improved water and sanitation facilities would play a vital role in the economic growth and process of the developing nations. It would help the developing countries to minimise their direct and indirect spending in public healthcare. The basic hygiene and sanitation facilities act as the most cost-effective form of public health interventions. Almost 50% of the people living in the developing countries are suffering from one or more water borne diseases (which are easily preventable) that has occurred as a result of inadequate provision of water and sanitation facilities (Clasen et al., 2014). It would help in saving the time of people and thereby contribute towards the economic growth and productivity of a nation. It has been found that people lacking basic sanitation facilities like toilets or taps at home are more likely to spend a lot of time each day while queuing up in front of public toilets or finding secluded spots for open defecation or travelling many miles in search of clear drinking water. This unnecessary loss of time (which has an estimated economic value of $100 billion annually) could be minimised by providing basic sanitation facilities in the developing nations which would help in increasing the productive time of people (Sanitationdrive2015.org, 2015). The saving made from the reduction in public healthcare funding from the implementation of the basic sanitation facilities could be invested in providing better educational infrastructure and facilities to the general population in the developing countries.
Theme 2 – Social Impacts of Sanitation
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that global access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation combined with education and awareness about proper hygiene would go a long way in reducing the illnesses and death that occurs from impure and unsafe drinking water and this would eventually contribute to improved health outcomes for the people of the developing countries. Sanitation is a broad based term that includes the disposal of human excreta, untreated waste water (sewage), solid wastes and personal domestic hygiene (Projectwet.org, 2018). Improved sanitation facilities can go a long way in minimising the levels of environmental pollution and this would play a vital role in helping the people of a region to lead a healthy life. Human excrete has been known to be a cause of many enteric diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. These diseases are preventable in nature but due to lack of awareness among the general population regarding sanitation people in the developing countries become more susceptible to such diseases (Pengpid & Peltzer, 2012). Ensuring improved sanitation facilities in the developing nations would play a vital role in reducing the spread of water borne diseases which account for almost 80% of all health related disorders in the developing nations. Improved sanitation facilities would play a vital role in improving the present standard of living in the developing countries by enabling the people in the developing nations could lead better quality of life (Shandra et al., 2011).
Theme 1 – Economic Impacts of Sanitation in the developing Countries
The results from our study indicate that almost 68% of the global population is able to access basic sanitation facilities in the year 2015. The developed nations of the world such as the North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are able to provide the basic sanitation facilities to nearly their entire population (100%). In the case of the Latin American and the Caribbean nations, 86% of the population were able to access the basic sanitation facilities in their countries while 5% of the population were able to access only limited sanitation facilities. The remaining 9% of the population in the Latin American and the Caribbean nations were unable to access any proper sanitation facilities. The picture in West Asia and North Africa was similar to that of the Latin American nations and there also it was found that 86% of the population were able to access the basic sanitation facilities while 5% of the population were able to access only limited sanitation facilities in their countries leaving only 9% people without access to any sanitation facilities. This situation was not very good in the Eastern Asia and South Eastern Asia with only 77% of the population having access to basic sanitation facilities while another 6% population having access to limited sanitation facilities leaving the remaining 17% population without any access to proper sanitation facilities. The situation deteriorated further in case of Central Asian and South Asian nations where only 50% population were able to access basic sanitation facilities and another 12% people were able to access limited sanitation facilities. This showed that almost 38% of the population were not able to access any sanitation services in their countries. The situation in Oceania was further worrisome because only 36% of the population were able to access basic sanitation services while another 4% were able to access limited sanitation facilities. Lastly, the worst performing region was sub-Saharan African nations. It was found that only 28% of the population in the sub-Saharan African region were able to access basic sanitation services and another 18% of the population were able to access the limited sanitation services leaving 54% of the population without any access to sanitation services.
Improving the Economic Impacts of Sanitation
Poverty and lack of educational awareness are the major constraints that are preventing the people in the developing countries from gaining access to better and more improved sanitation facilities which would have a positive impact on their overall health. The developing nations are economically weak and technologically backward as compared to the rest of the world and this is one of the major reasons that public awareness levels has not reached an adequate levels which is why many people are unaware of the health issues that arises out of utilisation of poor water sanitation facilities (Clasen et al., 2014). The government of the developing countries must adopt affirmative measures through which they would be able to impart better education and awareness about the importance of maintaining proper sanitation and how it would help in contributing towards their economic wellbeing by minimising their spending on health related disorders that are caused mainly due to poor sanitation. The government of the developing nations would be able to minimise their spending on public healthcare and this could be better utilised to create better employment opportunities for the local population which would eventually contribute towards their economic growth and development..
Improving the Social impacts of Sanitation
The social impacts of sanitation could be improved through imparting better education among the masses regarding how ensuring proper sanitation facilities would contribute towards a healthy population and at the same time help in reducing the existing amount of water pollution levels. This would help in educating people how to ensure an effective disposal of both solid wastes and untreated sewage water and this would help in ensuring a healthy and disease free society which would automatically increase the life expectancy of the people living in the developing countries.
Conclusion
The main limitation of this research is the small sample size that has been considered by the researcher. The small sample size has really played a vital role in the overall quality and accuracy of this research. For ensuring a more comprehensive study in this subject, a larger sample size must be considered in the near future.
References
Mara, D., Lane, J., Scott, B. & Trouba, D. (2010). ‘Sanitation and Health’, PLoS Medicine, vol. 7, no. 11, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000363.
Keller, S. (2018). ‘Water, Sanitation and Economy | SSWM.’ [Viewed 28 Aug. 2018] https://www.sswm.info/arctic-wash/module-1-introduction/further-resources-sustainability-relation-water-sanitation/water%2C-sanitation-and-economy
Bartram, J. and Cairncross, S., 2010. ‘Hygiene, sanitation, and water: forgotten foundations of health.’ PLoS medicine, 7(11), p.e1000367. [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018], https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000367
Clasen, T., Pruss?Ustun, A., Mathers, C. D., Cumming, O., Cairncross, S., & Colford Jr, J. M. (2014). ‘Estimating the impact of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene on the global burden of disease: evolving and alternative methods.’ Tropical medicine & international health, 19(8), 884-893. [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018], https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tmi.12330
Peal, A.J., Evans, B.E. and van der Voorden, C., 2010. ‘Hygiene and sanitation software: an overview of approaches.’ [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018], https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/42842/6/EvansBE2.pdf
Pengpid, S., & Peltzer, K. (2012). ‘Hygiene behaviour and health attitudes in African countries.’ Current opinion in psychiatry, 25(2), 149-154.
Projectwet.org. (2018). ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) | Project WET Foundation.’ [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018], https://www.projectwet.org/what-we-do/international/wash
Sanitationdrive2015.org. (2015). ‘Sanitation is a Good Economic Investment.’ [online] [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018]., https://sanitationdrive2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Planners-Guide-Fact-Sheet-2_English.pdf
Shandra, C. L., Shandra, J. M., & London, B. (2011). ‘World bank structural adjustment, water, and sanitation: A cross-national analysis of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.’ Organization & Environment, 24(2), 107-129.
Sswm.info. (2018). ‘Water and Sanitation: The Economic Case for Global Action | SSWM.’ [Viewed 25 Aug. 2018], https://www.sswm.info/node/1788
World Health Organization, WHO/UNICEF Joint Water Supply and Sanitation Monitoring Programme, 2015. ‘Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2015 update and MDG assessment.’ World Health Organization.
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