Sanitation is fundamental to health, education and economic development

(Hennef) – Safe access to sanitary facilities at all times is not a luxury, but a human right. Safe access to sanitary facilities at all times is the basis for health, economic development and gender equality, especially in the area of ​​education. Despite many global efforts, 3.5 billion people still lack access to safe sanitation.

It is high time for action, calls for Catarina de Albuquerque, former special rapporteur of the United Nations and initiator of the human rights to drinking water and sanitation, on the occasion of the UN World Toilet Day on November 19th: “Until recently, the human right to sanitation was the youngest of all human rights. This is illogical when you consider how important access to a clean, private and safe toilet is to a healthy population, to girls’ school attendance, to the attractiveness of a country to tourists and to the prosperity of the economy. On this World Toilet Day, I shout “To better recognize the role of sanitation in improving lives and to place it higher on the global political agenda.”

Concrete figures underline the pressure for increased action. Since 1990, around 2.5 billion people worldwide have been given access to sanitary facilities. However, these successes were overcompensated by the growing world population. According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, 3.4 billion people currently do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities, and 500 million people have to relieve themselves outdoors. Around 1.5 million people worldwide die every year as a result of contaminated water.

In addition to the extreme health effects, there is economic and social damage. The World Health Organization calculates that a person without access to sanitary facilities spends 30 minutes per day to relieve themselves. With sanitary facilities, women in particular would not only have the opportunity to carry out their needs in humane conditions, but could also use this time for economic activities and education.

In order to concretely improve the situation on site, the German Association for Water Management, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) is active as a specialist partner in many countries; development cooperation has a long tradition at the DWA. For more than 20 years, the DWA has been involved in a variety of development cooperation projects, especially in India, Bangladesh, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt as well as Peru. Another important pillar is the promotion of young talent and skilled workers; since 2001, the DWA has been training engineers from various countries in the “Young Water Professionals Program”. With the “Train the Trainers” project, in collaboration with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), local specialists are made fit for training young talent.

World Toilet Day was first declared in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared November 19 as World Toilet Day as United Nations World Day. Access to sanitation has been a human right recognized by the United Nations since 2010, and the same applies to the supply of drinking water. Both drinking water supply and access to sanitation are essential elements of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations at the end of 2015. As United Nations Special Rapporteur, Catarina de Albuquerque was the driving force behind both the inclusion of water and sanitation as human rights in the UN Charter by the UN General Assembly and the integration of these rights into the Sustainable Development Goals. In September, the German Association for Water Management, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) honored Albuquerque with its highest award, the William Lindley Ring, for its outstanding and extremely committed performance in establishing these human rights.

Source and contact address:
DWA – German Association for Water Management, Sewage and Waste eV Dipl.-Volksw. Stefan Bröker, press spokesman Theodor-Heuss-Allee 17, 53773 Hennef Telephone: (02242) 8720, Fax: (02242) 872135

(jg)