Inquiry on the World Sanitation Services

The following data analysis will try to show the current and past world distribution of three main topics: basic and safely managed sanitation services, safe water sources and hygiene services by country. The World Health Organization constantly records many kinds of data regarding the world situation. For this analysis, the temporal data extends from 2008 to 2015. All the data tables are divided in 3 different typologies: Rural, Urban and Total.

Topic 1: Sanitation services

The World Health Organization sets goals to achieve, called Sustainable Development Goals (from now on SDG), in order to improve the health and the living conditions in all the countries. The SDG 6.2 calls for achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and ending open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls, children and those in vulnerable situations. The indicator used to measure progress is the percentage of the population using “safely managed sanitation services”. The map shows the current world distribution by country of basic sanitation services. As we can see only North America and Europe are actually providing 100% basic sanitation services. In Asia there is a mediocre situation ranging from 74% of China to much lower levels like Afghanistan with a mere 38%. India, despite being a developing country, is still providing only 43% sanitation services. The African continent instead, only provides services in the northern region and in South Africa. In the center, the situation is dramatic, ranging between 7% of Ethiopia to an average of 40%. The only excpetions are Equatorial Guinea with 75% and Rwanda with 61%.

Services Distribution GeoChart 2015

Basic sanitation services:

The following column chart shows the distributions of the basic sanitation services grouped by country and by typology. The indicator used to measure progress is the percentage of the population using “basic sanitation services”. Sanitation is critical for preventing many diseases including diarrhoea, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma which affect millions of peoples. Ensuring universal access to sanitation in households and institutional settings such as healthcare facilities and schools is essential in reducing disease, improving nutritional outcomes, enhancing safety, well-being and educational prospects, especially for women and girls.

If the excreta from improved sanitation facilities are not safely managed then people using those facilities will be classed as having a basic sanitation service SDG 1.4. People using improved facilities which are shared with other households will be classified as having a limited service. The JMP will also continue to monitor the population practising open defecation which is an explicit focus of SDG target 6.2.

Safely managed sanitation services:

Safely managed sanitation, safe wastewater treatment and reuse are fundamental to protect public health. WHO is leading efforts to monitor the global burden of sanitation related disease and access to safely managed sanitation and safely treated wastewater under the Sustainable Development Agenda. WHO also monitors factors that enable or hinder progress towards these targets. There are ways to meet the criteria for having a safely managed sanitation service. People should use improved sanitation facilities which are not shared with other households, and the excreta produced should either be: treated and disposed in situ, stored temporarily and then emptied and transported to treatment off-site and transported through a sewer with wastewater and then treated off-site. The JMP (Joint Monitoring Program) 2017 update estimated that in 2015, 61% of the global population (4.5 billion people) lacked safely managed sanitation services. These people either used basic toilets or latrine (2.1 billion), shared toilets among several households (600 million), used poorly constructed latrines or buckets (856 million), or defecated in the open (892 million).

Time line 2008-2015

The following timelime allows to select a country and to see the yearly improvements from 2008 to 2015. The total improvements are noticeable in Asian countries like Afghanistan (+8%), Azerbaijan (+9%), Bangladesh (+10%), Cambogia (+17%), China (+7%), Iraq (+4% Total, +12% Rural), Pakistan (+10%), Vietnam (+11%). The services in Georgia (-5% Total, -12% Rural) dropped by a fair amount. Probably the data was not updated in the whole Rural regions. The African situation is improving slowly in the northern region: Tunisia (+10%), Morocco (+6%), Mozambique (+6%), South Africa (+6%). In the middle Africa the situation is mainly stationary with little or no improvements and some special cases like Nigeria (-1%): even if it's the biggest economy in Africa it is still not properly covered by basic sanitation services. In Rwanda, instead, the improvements in Rural (+10%) even overcame the Urban coverage.

Topic 2: Unsafe drinking-water

"SDG target 6.1 calls for achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. The indicator used to measure progress is the percentage of the population using safely managed drinking water services. In order to meet the criteria for a safely managed drinking water service, people must use an improved source meeting three criteria: it should be accessible on premises water should be available when needed the water supplied should be free from contamination. If the improved source does not meet any one of these criteria but a round trip to collect water takes 30 minutes or less, then it will be classified as a basic drinking water service. If water collection from an improved source exceeds 30 minutes it will be categorised as a limited service."

The current world distribution is mainly divided in countries with an high quality of water sources, corresponding roughly with highly developed countries, and countries with low quality water sources corresponding mainly with third world countries. The JMP 2017 update estimated that in 2015, 29% of the global population (2.1 billion people) lacked “safely managed drinking water”– meaning water at home, available, and safe. An additional 4.4 billion had a basic water service, but outside the home, not always available, or unsafe. The remaining 0.8 billion either had to walk more than 30 min to collect water from outside the home, used unprotected water sources, or took untreated water from rivers or lakes – sources likely to be contaminated.

Water safety and quality are fundamental to human development and well-being . Providing access to safe water is one of the most effective instruments in promoting health and reducing poverty . Globally, nearly two billion people use either unimproved drinking-water sources or improved sources that are faecally-contaminated. Over half a million diarrhoeal deaths in low- and middle-income countries are attributed to inadequate drinking-water, and the vast majority of these deaths occur among children under 5 . 71% is the proportion of the global population using a safely managed drinking-water service. 2 billion is the number of people worldwide that use a drinking-water source contaminated with faeces . Regulation aimed at ensuring the safety of drinking-water is a powerful tool to protect public health in developed and developing countries alike. .

Topic 3: Hygiene services

Handwashing with soap

Poor sanitation and hygiene can present significant health risks by exposing populations to various microbial, chemical, and other hazards. The following countries still don't use or don't have access to soap for washing their hands. The explicit reference to hygiene in the text of SDG target 6.2 represents increasing recognition of the importance of hygiene and its close links with sanitation. Hygiene is multi-faceted and can comprise many behaviours, including handwashing, menstrual hygiene and food hygiene. International consultations among WASH sector professionals identified handwashing with soap and water as a top priority in all settings, and also as a suitable indicator for national and global monitoring.

The presence of a handwashing facility with soap and water on premises has been identified as the priority indicator for global monitoring of hygiene. Households that have a handwashing facility with soap and water available on premises will meet the criteria for a basic hygiene facility. There were not enough data to make a global estimate of the population with handwashing facilities in 2015, but the available data did show that in sub-Saharan Africa, only 15% of the population had access to a basic handwashing facility with soap and water. According to a 2015 WHO/UNICEF global review, over 1/3 of facilities lack a water source and a similar proportion lack water and soap for handwashing. Approximately 1/5 do not have improved sanitation and over half lack adequate systems for the safe disposal of health care waste.

No bathroom access

Unfortunately many countries still don't have acces to basic sanitation services like bathrooms. The open defecation is still a big problem in the low and middle economy countries. In India the problem is really big. Actually, almost 40% of the population (800 million people) don't have access to this kind of facilities. The health consequences are concerning. About 700,000 children die annually from diarrhea caused by lack of access to proper sanitation. As we can see in the chart the majority of the countries belong to the African continent. Even in countries with a 500 billion PIL like Nigeria, the biggest in Africa, the 36% of the population lack access to bathrooms.

Conclusions

Urgent action is needed to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as well as health care waste management in health care facilities. As the international authority on public health and water quality, WHO will lead the global efforts to promote health-based regulations to governments and working with partners to promote effective risk management practices to water suppliers, communities and households.T he WHO/UNICEF global action plan which was launched in 2015, aims to ensure that all health care facilities in all settings have adequate water, sanitation and hygiene services by 2030. Robust drinking-water regulatory systems will be catalytic to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with regards to achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking-water for all. Moreover, the economic benefits of investing in water and sanitation are considerable: they include an overall estimated gain of 1.5% of global GDP and a US$ 4.3 return for every dollar invested in water and sanitation services, due to reduced health care costs for individuals and society, and greater productivity and involvement in the workplace through better access to facilities.