Can SA lay claim to a sanitary revolution?

Abstract

Sanitation Access to safe sanitation remains one of the most fundamental challenges in the world. A staggering 2,6 billion people are still without safe toilets, leading to millions of deaths of mostly children from diarrhoeal diseases every year. To highlight their plight and place the issue in the spotlight, the United Nations (UN) has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. To underscore its importance sanitation has been hailed as the most important medical advance in the past 150 years, according to a poll conducted by the prestigious British Medical Journal. Dr Lee Jongwoo, Director-General of the World Health Organisation, names water and sanitation the primary drivers of public health. “Once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of their living conditions, a huge battle against all kinds of diseases will be won.” Water, Sanitation and health Water provision cannot be separated from two other inter-related factors – sanitation and health.

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