Geneva: “Eliminating inequalities can start in the most unlikely of
places: a toilet,” said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human
right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, on World
Toilet Day. “Access to sanitation facilities around the world, more than any
other service, provides a window into the vast difference between the ‘haves’
and the ‘have-nots.’”
“Every day, 7,500 people die due to a lack of sanitation,
5,000 of whom are less than 5 years old. Every year, 272 million schooldays are
missed due to water-borne or sanitation-related diseases,” de Albuquerque
recalled, noting that more than one out of three people do not have access to
improved sanitation facilities, according to UN Millennium Development Goals
figures.
“Access to sanitation currently ranks as the most-off track
of the Millennium Goals, and one that will obviously not be met by 2015,” she
stressed, noting that enormous challenges remain despite the attention paid in
recent years to accelerating the pace of change for such appalling reality.
The human rights expert drew special attention to the fact
that one of the most critical challenges is the high number of people still
practicing open defecation on a daily basis – over 1 billion, producing enough
faeces to fill a football stadium every day.
“Try to imagine yourself without toilets – no toilet in your
workplace and no toilet at home. Imagine you had to relieve yourself in the
streets of your city or town. Imagine yourself trying to find every single day
a quiet, secluded spot. Imagine the insecurity and indignity of the situation –
especially if you are a woman. And suppose you could smell excrement, because
your city had no money to build and maintain a proper sewer system,” de
Albuquerque asked. “This is the situation billions of people face today –
especially those who are most marginalized.”
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| Catarina de Albuquerque is the first UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation. |
Safe, sustainable and affordable access to a toilet is
essential for the well-being and rights of every human being. “This is not only
about ensuring the right to sanitation, but is also critical for the enjoyment
of numerous other rights, such as the right to health, the right to education,
the right to work and the right to lead a life in dignity,” the UN Special
Rapporteur highlighted.
“Those who do not have access to adequate sanitation are
overwhelmingly people living in poverty, and marginalised and excluded
individuals and groups,” she said, “but the UN Millennium Development Goals
have not provided a solution to resolve this gap in equality of access.”
In her view, “lack of sanitation will keep these same people
sick, away from school and work, victims of violence when trying to find a
place to hide to ‘do their business’ and not able to break the cycle of poverty
and exclusion in which they are trapped.”
In her latest report to the UN General Assembly, de
Albuquerque asks for a post-2015 development agenda that once and for all aims
at eliminating discrimination and inequalities in access to water and
sanitation; an agenda that strives to ensure access to adequate sanitation for
all, prioritising available resources and devising new policies to address the
needs of those individuals and groups who are currently excluded.
On World Toilet Day, the UN Special Rapporteur’s message is
simple: “Giving these people sanitation and hygiene, will be a fundamental step
to allow them to aspire to a better life. It is about a toilet, of all places.”