Sanitation Flashcards
Sanitation is often what?
taken for granted
What are improved sanitation facilities?
include those:
- promote safe treatment of human waste for health and environment
- Limit human exposure to fecal matter
- Provide safe and secure spaces for men, women and children that meet their unique needs
- encourage hygienic practices
Where did sanitation fit within the millennium development goals?
- MDG # 7 - target 7 c - halve the proportion of the population without sustainable and safe drinking water and basic sanitation
- Target for drinking water was met 5 years ahead of schedule
- 2.1 billion people gained access to improved sanitation since 1990
- Proportion of people practicing open defecation decreased by almost half, from 24% to 13%
- World missed the MDG target due to lack of access to improved sanitation
Where does sanitation fit within the sustainable development goals?
SDG #6 - clean water and sanitation - ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Facts about sanitation?
- in 2019, 4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation
- over 670 million people practice open defecation
- In 2015, 46 countries where less than half of the population has access to improved sanitation
Sanitation in a Canadian context?
- Most Canadians have access to ideal sanitation facilities, but not everyone
- Some first nations reserves lack access to proper sanitation - lack of coordinated, consistent effort from government to address the issue
- discrimination
- accessibility
Why is it important to talk about sanitation?
- Health and environmental impacts
-> exposure to human waste increase chances of contracting certain diseases
-> increase in transmission of pathogens through oral-fecal route
->2 million people die every year from diarrheal disease - 90% are due to poor hygiene and unsafe water
-> inadequate sanitation causes 432, 000 diarrheal deaths every year
-> contamination of water and food resources - Sanitation is a human right
Questions to think about in regards to sanitation?
- How and why do sanitation inequalities have a greater impact on these populations?
- Women and girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Rural living
- Low income
How does sanitation impact women and girls?
- 1 in 3 women lack access to adequate sanitation
- 526 million women and girls have no choice but to openly defecate
- Globally, 66% of schools have access to adequate sanitation
- improve 1.25 billion women’s lives with adequate sanitation
- 97 billion hours each year searching for toilets
reasons for women and girls sanitation issues?
- Female sanitation needs are different than they are for males
- Sanitation issues disproportionately affect women
- they impact girls school attendance
- Menstrual taboos discourage women from using shared sanitation facilities
- Females more at risk of sanitation borne diseases
- waiting until nightfall and shared facilities put them at risk
Sanitation impacts on people with disabilities?
- Persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented
- Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities article 28:
-> right of persons with disabilities “to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families; this includes state parties duty to ensure equal access to clean water services
Reasons for sanitation issues for people with disabilities
- technical barriers: sanitation facilities often not designed to meet their needs, especially in public places
- Social barriers: stigma and discrimination when using household and public sanitation facilities
- Accessibility problems especially for those with mobility challenges
Impact of sanitation of people living in rural areas
- 7/10 people without improved sanitary facilities live in rural areas
- 9/10 still practicing open defecation live in rural areas
Reasons for sanitation issues for people living in rural areas?
- availability of resources: sewage systems and private sanitation facilities
- the norm
- lower income levels
- urban areas are given priority
-> only 10% of funding goes to rural area sanitation
Impacts of sanitation on low income individuals
- inequality: gap between richest and poorest in an area - greater gap means more inequality
- progress was made in many countries toward MDG target but not in reducing inequalities in Sanitation
- few countries have halved the proportion of the poorest without access to sanitation since 1995
