World Toilet Day: Sanitation for All

Sanitation has enormous economic, social and ecological implications, trapping developing countries in a vicious circle of poverty. Safe drinking water and sanitation are crucial in the fight to end world poverty. CIWEM finds it unacceptable that the Millennium Development Goal to halve the amount of people without access to basic sanitation is arguably the goal farthest from being reached.
 
CIWEM Director of International Development, Paul Horton, says: “I think that in the International Year of Sanitation it is imperative that the sanitation target set under MDG Seven is reviewed and an honest assessment made of the progress, or lack, towards achieving the aim of reducing by half the number of people without access to sanitation. The definition of basic sanitation in the target should be enhanced to incorporate the standards used by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) and, linked to the JMP, there should be an audit process to ensure that data collected is of robust quality.
 
At a time when the world is facing ever more volatile weather systems due to climate change, access to proper sanitation is a fundamental human right, one that is in danger of never being met unless the MDG target is reviewed and a realistic plan of action is developed.”