19 November 2011

Could you live without a toilet? -

To mark World Toilet Day (today) I have written the following article on the LabourList blog...

It’s hard to imagine living without something as simple – and vital – as a toilet. Yet just over 150 years ago this was the daily reality for many people in the UK. Without adequate sanitation or safe water to drink, disease was rife. It was the cause of child mortality levels found in Africa today.

Faced with this devastating crisis, the government took action, creating water and sewerage systems that saved countless lives, improved public health and spurred Britain’s development. The expansion of our water and sanitation infrastructure in the 1880s contributed to a fifteen-year increase in life expectancy in just four decades.

It’s shocking to think that in the 21st century almost two fifths of the world’s population, some 2.6 billion people, are still living every day without one of life’s most basic necessities – a toilet. Diarrhoea, caused by dirty water and poor sanitation, is the biggest killer of children in Africa and the second biggest killer of children in South Asia.

A few years ago the International Development Committee, of which I am a member, published a report highlighting that water and sanitation should sit right at the heart of development.

Why? Because not having clean water to drink and a safe place to go to the toilet keeps people trapped in poverty and puts great strain on the health services and economies of developing nations. At any one time half the hospital beds in developing countries are taken up by people suffering from diseases associated with dirty water and poor sanitation – people who could be out earning a living or caring for their families. Children who should be in school.

Keep reading online at LabourList...

And you can support WaterAid's Water Works campaign - calling on governments across the world to do more to tackle the water and sanitation crisis ahead of the upcoming High Level Meeting on water and sanitation in Washington DC next April - online at www.wateraid.org/waterworks.