A nation with too few toilets

The stench of a report released last week by the United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health in New York City brought the world’s attention to the fact that India’s vast open spaces are a latrine for half the population. To drive home the point Zafar Adeel, director of the UN think-tank, said that while about 45 per cent of the 1.2 billion population has access to mobile phones only about 31 per cent has access to improved sanitation. Not so long ago a WHO/UNICEF report stated that for every 10 people in the world defecating in the open, close to six were in India.

Two aspects need to be highlighted. The first is suggested by Corinne Shuster-Wallace, co-author of the report. “Even the word ‘sanitation’ is sanitised, perpetuating ancient taboos about discussing human waste…” How many people would discuss sanitation over the morning coffee? The second is the failure to create the awareness needed to drive home the importance of sanitation. Nor has the government focused sufficiently on bringing down the cost of a usable toilet and its long-term functioning. At the micro-level city corporations and panchayat bodies have given no thought to building public toilets. The few that are found are terribly maintained. How many of the bus/railway stations in our cities/towns have toilets — leave aside their condition? The government could take a leaf from private organisations that build and operate toilets in many of our cities and towns.

According to the Millennium Declaration adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2000 member countries, India included, are required to achieve eight development goals by 2015. If the IWEH report is anything to go by, India would miss five of the eight goals by miles, thanks to a deplorable sanitation scene.

If people are to view sanitation as a serious issue governments too must look at it gravely. The same focus and publicity that is given to the Nuclear Summit, to cite an example, should be given to a summit on sanitation where mayors and civic councillors would discuss how to provide citizens with what is a basic dignity, a clean, usable toilet. It is true that if nuclear knowhow falls into the wrong hands the world will be at risk, but it is also certain that diseases caused by lack of sanitation are killing millions, especially children, around the world every year, and the number is rising.