WaterAid UK / International World Toilet Day
Today 36 prominent international health and development experts including representatives from WaterAid, The World Medical Association, the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Amref Health Africa, Bangladesh Medical Association, British Medical Association, Commonwealth Medical Association, Global Health Council, Indian Medical Association, International Confederation of Midwifes, Nigerian Medical Association, and the Royal College of General Practitioners amongst many others, have called for an end to a crisis that has claimed the lives of over 10 million children under the age of five since the year 2000.
In an Open letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, the signatories, representing over 620,000 health professionals globally, highlight the desperate waste of life caused by people not having access to a basic toilet. Without basic sanitation, children have no choice but to live and play in areas contaminated by human waste.
One in three children globally does not have access to a basic toilet, which alongside unsafe drinking water and a lack of hygiene services, contributes to the world’s three main killers of children: undernutrition, pneumonia and diarrhoea, the letter states.
The letter, coordinated by the international development organisation WaterAid, has been published to coincide with World Toilet Day. It is also signed by IGHI’s Professor the Lord Darzi and highlights that the sanitation ‘crisis touches every moment of every child’s life, from birth to adulthood, if they are lucky enough to make it that far‘. (more…)