SANITATION FACT SHEET

Hygienic sanitation facilities are crucial for public health. Since 1990, the number of people gaining access to improved sanitation has risen from 54% to 68% but some 2.4 billion people still do not have toilets or covered latrines. In 2010, the UN General Assembly recognized access to safe and clean drinking-water and sanitation as a human right, and called for international efforts to help countries to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking-water and sanitation.

Despite progress, the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target to halve the proportion of the population without access to improved sanitation facilities was missed by almost 700 million people. Sanitation facilities Despite big improvements, inequalities between and within countries and regions persist. In Southern Asia, 47% of the population was using improved sanitation facilities in 2015 compared with 22% in 1990. Sub-Saharan Africa has made slower progress, with sanitation coverage rising from 24% to 30% in 2015. In 47 countries, less than half the population has access to a toilet or an improved latrine. Some 13% of the global population is forced to defecate in the open. Nine out of 10 people who do this live in rural areas but the number defecating in the open in towns and cities is gradually increasing as urban populations grow without a corresponding expansion of sanitation facilities. The nearly 700 million people who would have been served if the MDG target for sanitation had been met is equal to the number of unserved people in sub-Saharan Africa. Sanitation and health Some 842 000 people in low- and middle-income countries die as a result of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene each year, representing 58% of total diarrhoeal deaths. Poor sanitation is believed to be the main cause in some 280 000 of these deaths. Diarrhoea remains a major killer but is largely preventable. Better water, sanitation and hygiene could prevent the deaths of 361 000 children aged under 5 each year. Open defecation perpetuates a vicious cycle of disease and poverty. The countries where open defection is most widespread have the highest number of deaths of under-5s as well as the highest levels of malnutrition and poverty, and big disparities of wealth. Benefits of improving sanitation Benefits of improved sanitation extend well beyond reducing the risk of diarrhoea. These include: reducing the spread of intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma, which are neglected tropical diseases that cause suffering for millions; reducing the severity and impact of malnutrition; promoting dignity and boosting safety, particularly among women and girls; promoting school attendance: girls’ school attendance is particularly boosted by the provision of separate sanitary facilities; potential recovery of water, renewable energy and nutrients from faecal waste. A WHO study in 2012 calculated that for every $1 invested in sanitation, there was a return of $5.50 in lower health costs, more productivity and fewer premature deaths. Key facts In 2015, 68% of the world’s population had access to improved sanitation facilities including flush toilets and covered latrines, compared with 54% in 1990. Nearly one third of the current global population has gained access to an improved sanitation facility since 1990, a total of 2.1 billion people.2.4 billion people still do not have basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines. Of these, 946 million still defecate in the open, for example in street gutters, behind bushes or into open bodies of water. The proportion of people practising open defecation globally has fallen almost by half, from 24%to 13%. At least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by wastewater. Poor sanitation is linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Inadequate sanitation is estimated to cause 280 000 diarrhoeal deaths annually and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Poor sanitation also contributes to malnutrition. As the international authority on public health, WHO leads global efforts to prevent transmission of diseases, advising governments on health-based regulations. On sanitation, WHO monitors global burden of disease and the level of sanitation access and analyses what helps and hinders progress. Such monitoring gives Member States and donors global data to help decide how to invest in providing toilets and ensuring safe management of wastewater and excreta. WHO works with partners on promoting effective risk assessment and management practices for sanitation through Sanitation Safety Planning, Guidelines on Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta and Greywater, and forthcoming Sanitation and Health Guidelines and Global Strategy on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and Neglected Tropical Diseases. WHO is also working with UNICEF on a global action plan for ending preventable child deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea by 2025. This aims to meet several prevention and treatment targets, including promoting universal access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities and homes by 2030. Increasing people’s access to improved sanitation combined with delivering preventive chemotherapy is also part of the 5 global public health strategies for the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases.