ISSUE48: FEBRUARY-APRIL 2007
network of research and training centres/programmes
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Huge
economic benefits from
better sanitation – experts
Spending $10 billion a year would enable the world to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of improved sanitation in developing countries with huge spin-offs such as less poverty and better health, according to a United Nations analysis released on World Water Day.
Experts estimate that $9 in productivity, health and other benefits are returned for every dollar invested installing toilets for people in countries that today are off-track in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation. Some argue that meeting the sanitation MDG is also a prerequisite to the goals of reducing global poverty.
But the world is lagging on a goal set in 2002 of halving the proportion of people, estimated at 2.6 billion or 40 percent of the world population, with no access to sanitation by 2015.
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"In many regions we are missing the goal," said Zafar Adeel (left), director of UNU International Network on Environment and Health. "But there can be huge human health, well-being and economic benefits," from investing in sanitation, Adeel added. Diarrhoeal disease is a leading cause of death and illness, killing 1.8 million people a year.
The goal for improved sanitation is part of a wider set of Millennium Development Goals such as halving poverty, improving access to drinking water, improving education and the rights of women by 2015.
Achieving the sanitation goal – to simply halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 – would cost a minimum of $38 billion, less than 1% of annual world military spending. That investment, however, would yield $347 billion worth of benefits – much of it related to higher productivity and improved health.
According to UN figures, meeting the sanitation MDG target would add 3.2 billion annual working days worldwide. Universal coverage would add more than four times as many working days.
Some 2.6 billion people – over a third of humanity – lack access to adequate sanitation. Each of those devotes a conservatively estimated 30 minutes a day queuing for public toilets and/or seeking seclusion. The cumulative time involved equals about two working days per month.
A more drastic consequence, however, is the number of workdays lost to diarrheal disease – either by ill workers or when she or he is caring for a sick child or relative. In addition, many women avoid workdays during menstruation when workplaces have no toilets.
This year is the International Year of Sanitation.
© 2008 United Nations University