1. Sanitation
is vital for health − Quote:
Compelling evidence-based analysis shows that hygiene and sanitation are among
the most cost-effective public health interventions to reduce childhood
mortality. Access to a toilet alone can reduce child diarrhoeal deaths by over 30
percent, and handwashing by more than 40 percent.
2. Sanitation is an investment with high economic
returns − Quote: Improved
sanitation in developing countries typically yields about US$5 worth for every US$2 spent.
3. Sanitation fosters social development − Quote: Social development is
about human progress; it centres on equality between women and men, social
inclusion, access to education, community cohesion and poverty eradication. At
its core are human dignity and human rights. For the 2.6 billion people who
have to defecate behind bushes, in plastic bags or buckets, along railway
tracks or in roadside ditches, human dignity is under daily assault.
4. Sanitation protects the environment − Quote: Toilets, washing
facilities, garbage removal, wastewater disposal, Stormwater drainage:
sanitation services such as these are a prerequisite for clean, healthy household
and community living environments, particularly in dense settlements. Such
sanitation services are also vital to safeguard environmental quality more
broadly, especially the quality of water resources.
5. A toilet for
everyone: we can do it − Quote:
“I do wish that I will get married in a family which has the facility of a
toilet and separate water tap. It is a dream for me.” Barkha, aged 12, Sanjay
Amar Colony, Delhi, India.
UN Water: homepage.
