Sanitation comes at a high price

Improper disposal of human waste is one of the developing world’s most serious health problems. Nearly two million children will die every year from severe diarrhea. That’s something that we would never dream of here in North America. Since these countries lack proper sanitation though, at least 2.4 billion people are affected. To put it in a bit more perspective, that’s about 40% of the world’s population.

When you have poor sanitation that means bacteria, viruses, parasites, you name it are all around you manifesting. Human waste is responsible for the transmission of schistosomiasis, cholera, and typhoid, which are all very serious to your health.

Here’s a fun fact… Did you know that one-gram of your poop can contain:

• 10,000,000 viruses
• 1,000,000 bacteria
• 1,000 parasite cysts
• 100 parasite eggs

Pretty disgusting eh? Now imagine that never being cleaned up, being clogged in your pipes, and over flowing your tap water. More often it is the children that suffer from these viruses. In Zambia, one in five children die before their fifth birthday. All because of dirty water, or unclean living conditions. That stat is just terrifying to me.

It’s scary when something we think is so curable, like diarrhea, is actually killing more people than AIDS or HIV. I don’t know about you but I hear way more about the AIDS virus than I do probably anything else. So why is this? Why are these stats being swept under the rug and now announced more to the rest of the world?

For women it goes beyond just sanitation as well. If women do not have access to a toilet they are forced to walk a distance outside of town at night to find a place to go. This puts them at risk for sexual harassment, assault, and animal attacks. The men have it a lot easier as they are allowed to go in the daytime and basically wherever they want. This opens up a whole other issue of gender inequality in these areas as well. As if there wasn’t already enough problems to deal with…

There are a few things we can do to help sanitation around the world. First and foremost is just plain knowledge. There have been so many stats that I didn’t know when doing the research. So please, just educate yourself.

In your day-to-day routine, make sure you’re washing your hands when you go to the washroom, when you handle meat, etc. Use soap as well! Also, you must make sure your waste is going down the toilet. Do not use the outdoors as your potty!

– K