Human waste - Causes and implications By Elizabeth Royte Photographs by Andrea Bruce This story appears in the August 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. At 65, Moolchand, bandy-legged and white-haired, has no problem rising for his predawn hunts. In fact he revels in them. “I hide along the lane with my flashlight,” he says in a low, excited voice, gesturing down the main road of Gaji Khedi village, in India’s Madhya Pradesh state. A lota is a water container, traditionally made of brass but these days more often of plastic. “I give chase,” Moolchand continues. Defecating in the open is as old as humankind. In 2015 the United Nations called for an end to open defecation by 2030. India has been grappling with the problem since before it won independence from Great Britain in 1947. The current prime minister, Narendra Modi, campaigned with the slogan “toilets before temples.” Modi aims to build more than 100 million new toilets in rural areas alone by 2019. The health toll in India is staggering. So where’s the hope?
Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation <a id="mobile-version-link" class="mobile-version-link" href=" the mobile version of globalgoals.org</a> Targets Australian Indigenous HealthBulletin : Environmental health challenges in remote Aboriginal Australian communities: clean air, clean water and safe housing Environmental health challenges in remote Aboriginal Australian communities: clean air, clean water and safe housing Holly D. Clifford1*, Glenn Pearson1, Peter Franklin1,2, Roz Walker1, Graeme R. 1Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia2School of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia3School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania*Corresponding author: Dr Holly D. View PDF version (PDF – 1.1 MB) Abstract Objective: A considerable health disparity exists between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, including a higher incidence and severity of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Methods: We comprehensively reviewed the literature regarding physical environmental challenges that are likely to be highly prevalent in remote Aboriginal communities, and have been linked with adverse health. Figure 1. Particulate air pollution Figure 2. Research needs Contamination of drinking water
Infectious Diseases and Bioterrorism It was hot. Swamps stretched before him in every direction. And there were mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes. Those were the things Steven Wiersma noticed first as he stepped out of his car last summer in rural Sirmans, Florida. Everything was typical Florida—except for the one thing that Wiersma, the state's chief epidemiologist, had come to investigate. The guts of those swarming mosquitoes, Wiersma had recently learned, were filled with a virus from a far-off land—a virus that had never inhabited the Western Hemisphere until 1999 but which had taken an instant liking to it. People like 73-year-old Seymore Carruthers of Sirmans, who lay in a coma with encephalitis in a Tallahassee hospital that week because he'd been bitten by one of those infected mosquitoes. Looking around the neighborhood, Wiersma could easily see how Carruthers had been felled. Tuberculosis has grown coldly resistant to the effects of modern antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and other regions of the world.
Sanitation | Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sanitation is essential to the survival and development of children. Currently, there are 2.4 billion people worldwide who do not use improved sanitation (a facility that safely separates human waste from human contact). 946 million people go in the open, known as “open defecation”. While progress has been made to improve access to sanitation in some parts of the world, millions of children in poor and rural areas have been left behind. Key sanitation facts: 1 in 3 people don’t use improved sanitation. 1 in 7 people practice open defecation. Ending open defecation Open defecation is when people go out in fields, , forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using a toilet. Currently, 1 in 7 people, or 946 million people, practice open defecation. Not just toilets, but behavior One of the biggest challenges to ending open defecation is not just providing clean and safe toilets, but changing the behavior of entire communities. What is sanitation? UNICEF WASH in Schools
4613.0 - Australia's Environment: Issues and Trends, 2006 Drinking water quality in Australia is high by world standards, considering that globally more than one billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water. In Australia, 93% of households were connected to mains/town water in March 2004. Almost all households (98%) in capital cities were connected, compared with 85% of households outside of capital cities. This discrepancy was largest in Tasmania, where 96% of households in Hobart were connected to mains/town water, compared with 77% for the rest of the state. In capital cities, 89% of households relied on mains/town water as their main source of drinking water while in regional areas this dropped to 67% of households. South Australians were least reliant on mains as their main source of water for drinking (60% in 2004) although this had increased significantly from 50% in 2001. Note: NT and ACT data refers to the whole territory.Source: ABS, Environmental Issues: People’s Views and Practices, 2004 (cat. no. 4602.0).
Poor sanitation in food and foodborne illness The chief topics of discussion one midsummer afternoon in a conference room at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are ground beef, eggs, salad, almonds, and cilantro. This is no conversation about the lunch menu but a review of outbreaks nationwide of disease caused by food. At the table are 26 epidemiologists—medical detectives charged with investigating the mysterious links between contaminated food and the illness it causes. The stories are not those I expect to hear, of people getting sick from drinking unpasteurized milk or eating deviled eggs left too long in the hot sun at a picnic, but tales of people sickened by contaminated parsley and scallions, cantaloupes, leaf lettuce, sprouts, orange juice, and almonds; refrigerated potato salad, eggs, chicken, salami, and beans; hot dogs, hamburgers, deli meats. According to the CDC, each year in the United States 76 million people suffer from food-borne disease; 325,000 of them are hospitalized and 5,000 die.
Water | Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Water is essential for the survival and development of all children. Without water, children simply cannot stay alive or thrive in a healthy environment. Water resources, and the range of services they provide, strengthen poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability. Water facts: 663 million people are still without access to clean drinking water, despite the Millennium Development Goal target for clean water being met in 2010. 8 out of 10 people without access to clean water live in rural areas. 159 million people use untreated water from lakes and rivers, the most unsafe water source there is. Drinking water supply and water safetyGlobally, the inequalities between those having access to water living in an urban area or rural areas have decreased but large gaps remain. Safety of drinking water is a growing concern in many parts of the world. In addition to this is the threat of contamination of water sources – both naturally occurring and from pollution.
Access to clean water and sanitation around the world – mapped | Global Development Professionals Network Around the world, 946 million people still go to the toilet outside. Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentry, hepatitis A and typhoid. A huge global effort has been focused on reducing these numbers and new data from the WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme, which has measured the progress made on access to drinking water and sanitation since 1990, shows that there have been improvements in certain areas. Eritrea’s neighbour Ethiopia has achieved the largest decrease in the proportion of the population practising open defecation, from 92% in 1990 to 29% in 2015. “Ethiopia has made a concerted effort to reduce open defecation rates over the past five years,” says Tim Brewer, Wateraid’s policy analyst on monitoring and accountability. Nine in 10 people who practice open defecation live in rural areas.
Potential Sanitation Solutions During an Emergency Response | Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | Healthy Water | CDC Lack of access to adequate and appropriate sanitation and hygiene can be chronic public health challenges contributing to the spread of disease in low- and medium-income countries. This situation can be made worse during environmental disasters and environmental and public health emergencies. In response to disasters and emergencies, prevention of open defecation and waste containment are critical to reduce the spread of disease. While planning for long-term waste management, immediate sanitation solutions are often needed to minimize the spread of disease during emergencies, and should include sanitation facilities, hand washing facilities with soap and water, operation and maintenance regimes, operator training, and community education. Sanitation Solutions (Immediate Term) Chemical toilets should be used in the immediate term where available and where the means to service them adequately exists. Top of Page
WASH United - Home It’s a fallacy that all Australians have access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene Nations are gathering in New York this week to discuss the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to improve health, wealth and well-being for countries both rich and poor. As a developed nation, it might be assumed that Australia will easily meet these new goals at home – including goal number 6, to ensure “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. But the unpalatable truth is that many Australians still lack access to clean water and effective sanitation. The World Bank’s Development Indicators list Australia as having 100% access to clean water and effective sanitation. But a discussion paper we released last week with our colleagues outlines how some remote Aboriginal communities struggle to meet Australian water standards. Making water safe High standards of health and well-being are unattainable without safe, clean drinking water, removal of toilet waste from the local environment, and healthy hygiene behaviours.
Toilets & Latrines | Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | Healthy Water | CDC The Need for Latrines and Toilets Proper sanitation facilities( (for example, toilets and latrines) promote health because they allow people to dispose of their waste appropriately. Throughout the developing world, many people do not have access to suitable sanitation facilities, resulting in improper waste disposal. Absence of basic sanitation facilities can: Result in an unhealthy environment contaminated by human waste. Without proper sanitation facilities, waste from infected individuals can contaminate a community's land and water, increasing the risk of infection for other individuals. Sanitation Facilities and Children’s Education According to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals Report [PDF - 2.31 MB], one in five girls of primary-school age are not in school, compared to one in six boys. Top of Page
Sustainable Development Goal #6, Clean Water and Sanitation & Project Management This week’s post focuses on SDG #6 of 17, Clean Water and Sanitation. It is amazing that 75% of our planet is covered in water yet there are entire countries that have limited access to drinkable clean water. There are several goals tied to this SDG but first, let me share some startling facts. 1 in 9 people world wide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water.Half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water-related disease4% of the people who don’t have access to improved water, live in rural areas, where they live principally through subsistence agriculture.443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases.Nearly 1 out of every 5 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease.According to the World Health Organization, for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, there is an economic return of between $3 and $34! Wow. Yes. SDG #6 has six targets and two sub targets. By 2020: By 2030 Good Example: