I was wrong!

My principle take from George's Ted talk and initial reading of her book 'The Big Necessity' was that sanitation is the key to water security- no matter the amount of water you have, if you don't have sanitation, disease will increase with multiplier effects occurring from then on.

Children become ill ⇨can't attend school⇨get a poorer education⇨have less life opportunities etc.

However one of the joys of carrying out wider reading on this topic is that you continuously learn and I can happily say that I was wrong about my take on sanitation issues!

Both J. Tucker et al (2014) and J. Thomson et al (2000) suggest that this understanding of water security and sanitation is not completely correct. Thompson suggests that "Less water in the home means less water available for washing hands after defecating, for cleaning utensils after cooking and eating, and for regular bathing of both adults and children", suggesting that in fact quantity of water supply plays a key role in the levels of sanitation in different areas. Tucker also gives a different perspective suggesting that "Hygiene is sacrificed in favour of other demands either on water resources or on household members' time, as the number of available sources declines and collection times increase". So some households may have access to safe sources of water, but if they are not convenient or are further away than other sources, they may well not be used as much as sources that are. Tucker does stress the importance of sanitation and schemes such as education about hand washing but suggests that poorest households are the ones that will be worst affected by the lack of sanitation particularly when looking at a temporal scale. For instance as water levels decrease during the dry season, "the very poor households report reducing their bathing frequency...from once a week to one or two times a month, while other groups weekly bathing is maintained".  

M. Teshome (2018) goes further by looking at the quality of the sanitation facilities provided.

They suggest that across some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, although open defecation rates are decreasing (a key target for improving sanitation) much of this decrease comes from the use of unimproved toilets such as latrines or buckets which do not improve sanitation risks. In the 'Big Necessity' George also discusses this issue when she meets Trevor Mulaudzi in South Africa. Mulaudzi saw that although toilets were being provided the quality of the toilet was leading to students leaving school in search of better sanitation elsewhere. Mulaudzi's mission is to "change the way people use public toilets in their daily lives and create a culture of personal accountability for sanitary practices" . 

These sources all suggest that there is a complexity in trying to provide 'Clean water and sanitation for all'. In my next blog I will look at some of the challenges and opportunities for people and places tackling this issue.

UN Sustainable Development Goal 6