Within 24 hours of your reading this, 4000 children will die through lack of access to toilets or safe drinking water. But there is a glimmer of hope. Investment in safe drinking water and sanitation turns out not to be a drain on resources, but one of the fastest ways for a poor country to energise its economy, says the World Health Organization.
On 26 August the WHO and UNICEF, the UN children鈥檚 organisation, published their latest update on global efforts to provide safe water for all. 鈥淗alf the population on the planet now have piped water at home, and that鈥檚 pretty impressive,鈥� says Jamie Bartram, coordinator of the WHO鈥檚 water sanitation and health programme. The organisation鈥檚 goal of providing safe drinking water for almost all by 2015 is essentially on course.
But sanitation is a different matter. Even if the WHO鈥檚 goals for 2015 are met, almost 2 billion people will still be without access to a latrine. Governments should see improving sanitation as an opportunity rather than a millstone, Bartram says. A report commissioned by the WHO earlier this year calculated that for every dollar invested in improving sanitation, there is a gain of between $3 and $34. That鈥檚 because countries will be spending far less money on wasted labour and on treating sanitation-related illnesses. Walking long distances to find clean water, for example, costs 40 billion work-hours a year in Africa alone.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 this tremendous motor for rapid improvement we should be unleashing. When you put money in, it multiplies out,鈥� Bartram says.