Poverty & hunger

Where does this issue fit into the Millennium Goals?

Safe water provision greatly improves health in underdeveloped communities (Goals 4,5,6) and contributes to reducing poverty and hunger. (Goal 1). Further to this, Goal 7 - Ensuring environmental sustainability - not only embraces the general aim of sustainable development, it specifically seeks to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

How does this issue affect people?

The lack of clean water close to people's homes also affects people's time, livelihoods and quality of life.

Many women and children in developing countries spend hours each day walking miles to collect water. This water is usually dirty and unsafe but they have no alternative. Carrying heavy water containers is an exhausting task, which takes up valuable time and energy. It prevents women from doing vital domestic or income generating work and stops children from going to school.
Sanitation

Diarrhoea claims the lives of nearly 6,000 children a day. These children are dying because they do not have access to adequate sanitation. Their deaths, from common diseases, are preventable. Where there is nowhere safe and clean to go to the toilet, people are exposed to disease, lack of privacy, and indignity. Bad health caused by poor sanitation has a knock-on effect on the family economy and nutrition.

In many cultures women who have no access to a latrine must wait until it is dark to go to the toilet or they have to walk long distances to find an isolated spot. Where there are no toilets girls are prevented from going to school.
Hygiene education

To gain the full benefits of safe water and sanitation communities also need to know about the links between diseases and unsafe hygiene practices. Hygiene education focuses on issues such as personal hygiene - the simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by a third.

Common diseases related to poor water, sanitation and unsafe hygiene practices are: cholera, hepatitis A, dysentery, giardiasis, polio, e-coli diarrhoea, typhoid, salmonella food poisoning, bilharzia, guinea worm, intestinal parasites like hookworm and tapeworm, and trachoma.

It is vital to teach communities about safe hygiene practices and the links between water and sanitation and diseases. This enables people to become healthier and live in a cleaner environment.

Information on this page was researched and collated with the help of Oxfam Australia and WaterAid Australia the United Nations Website.