World Toilet Summit Wraps Up

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 (OneWorld) - No bathroom. No clean water to drink. No playground for kids except streets filled with filth and human waste. That is the picture of life for the world's 2 billion poorest -- a vast majority of whom are working in big cities of developing countries -- painted by an international summit recently concluded in India.

Slum in Djibouti. © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

"Being deprived of adequate sanitation facilities is the most direct and dehumanizing consequence of poverty," says Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT).

In a message sent to the World Toilet Summit held in the Indian capital city of New Delhi last week, she called for policy makers across the world to adopt low-cost technologies to ensure adequate sanitation for all.

According to the UN, currently, about 40 percent of the world's population has no access to clean water or toilets, which is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa as well as southern and eastern Asia.

"Lack of access to an adequate toilet not only violates the dignity of the urban poor, but also affects their health," said Tibaijuka, who thinks sanitation is an issue that cannot be separated from poverty and the spread of deadly diseases.

Reaching a similar conclusion, world leaders committed in 2000 to do everything in their power to make sure that, by 2015, everyday access to clean water is ensured for at least half of those on the planet currently without it.

The target to provide clean water is part of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include a 50-percent cut in poverty, two-thirds reduction in child mortality, and the reversal of deadly diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

Adding to the list of MDGs in 2002, world leaders pledged to make it possible for at least half of the world population currently without access to sanitation facilities to have them by 2015.

Currently, millions of slum dwellers in the world's big cities have no way to find water other than local streams or rivers, which are often full of secretion, garbage, and toxic material.

There has been phenomenal growth in the world's urban population, a significant part of which resides in slums with no access to clean water or sanitation facilities.

According to the UN, in sub-Saharan African cities, there are more than 500 million people who have no proper toilet at all.

Experts say climate changes could make matters worse for slum dwellers as more floods, droughts, and heat waves are on their way to cause a variety of water and sewage-borne infectious diseases.

In an attempt to highlight this issue, the UN has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation.

"Greater community involvement combined with simple technology can greatly facilitate cost recovery." - UN-HABITAT Exec. Dir. Anna Tibaijuka

In Tibaijuka's view, most politicians and government leaders have largely failed to address the sanitation problem because they believe it would require high infrastructure costs and offers no big political gains.

Like many other development experts, she thinks they are wrong on both counts.

"Greater community involvement in water and sanitation management combined with simple technology for easy maintenance can greatly facilitate cost recovery and help ensure equitable access," said Tibaijuka.

In her observation, getting communities involved -- and especially women -- has proven very valuable in the struggle against sanitation problems in poor areas.

"Inhabitants' mobilization, combined with simple technology for easy maintenance, can produce great results," she said, adding that educating people is one of the first steps of the Cities Programs launched by the UN in Africa in 1999, and Asia in 2003.

The goal behind these programs is to create income opportunities for the urban poor by involving them in the management and delivery of community-based water and sanitation services.

In Indian cities, for example, the program has constructed community toilets to provide sanitation facilities in slums. In Africa, it is working in 17 cities across 13 countries.

The UN says access to drinking water has continued to rise in the developing world, reaching 80 percent in 2004 -- up from 71 percent in 1990 -- but sanitation conditions are not on the right track.

Marcela Canavarro contributed to this report.

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