A safe place to answer "nature’s call” should be a basic human right. In fact, the UN Human Rights Council recently recognized the right to water and sanitation as legally binding in international law. But worldwide, 2.6 billion people do not have access to appropriate sanitation facilities or latrines1 —that’s more than one in every three people! Lack of access to sanitation creates serious health risks, including endemic diarrhea.
Research suggests that sanitation and safe water supply can raise school attendance and reduce dropout rates, limiting sick days, missed days due to menstruation, and the demand on children’s time to collect water2. In terms of economic development, when improved water and sanitation are achieved, a low-income country’s per capita GDP growth has been demonstrated to be much higher than that of equally poor countries without improved access (3.7% and 0.1%, respectively)3.
PATH’s Safe Water Project is working to innovate in technology, product, service, business and systems logistics areas to address barriers to sanitation in low-resource settings. In many rural, poor communities, donated and do-it-yourself latrines often fall out of use, with community members choosing to practice open defecation instead. PATH is developing latrine designs that incorporate input from those who will use them and that are affordable to build and practical to sustain. Learn more.
1 United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010. New York: United Nations; 2010.
2 Pearson J, McPhedran K (2008) A literature review of the non-health impacts of sanitation.Waterlines 27: 48–61.
3 Sanctuary M, Tropp H, Haller L. Making Water a Part of Economic Development. Stockholm: Stockholm International Water Institute and World Health Organization for the Commission on Sustainable Development. Available online: http://www.siwi.org/documents/Resources/Reports/CSD_Making_water_part_of.... Accessed November 12, 2010.