by Pat Black Soroptimist International Director of Advocacy

The new 2030 Agenda has water and sanitation at its core, with a
dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and clear linkages to Goals relating to health, food security, climate
change, resiliency to disasters and ecosystems, amongst many others.

SDG: Goal 6 includes in its targets: “By
2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene
for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs
of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations” 

Water and sanitation are parts of our everyday lives which we so often take for granted.  And yet it is these very facilities which hold the key in so many places to the reduction and eradication of poor health and virulent diseases, to the enablement of girls and young women in continuing their education, and to the prevention of everyday public violence against women and girls. 

Imagine that every time you wished to relieve yourself you have to leave the safety of your home and find somewhere which will probably not be private, and where you are vulnerable to attack at any time on the way there or back. So many were outraged last year when two young women were found hanged in India, believed to have been killed after being raped when they had ventured to the edge of their village to defecate. Young women and girls are constantly attacked in many countries as they are fetching water. 

The 2015 World Toilet Day (WTD) at the United Nations (UN) is an initiative of the Singapore Government and a Singapore NGO, the World Toilet Organisation. November 19 was designated WTD in 2013 through a UN General Assembly resolution, unanimously adopted by all 193 Member States of the UN. In a statement for this years World Water Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "Sanitation is central to human and environmental health as well as to individual opportunity, development and dignity. Yet today, worldwide, one in every three people lacks improved sanitation, and one in every eight practices open defecation". 

 

Photo: World Toilet Day #WECANTWAIT

Click on the image above to go to the World Toilet Day web page & find out more

The UN High-Level Water and Sanitation Days 2015 are a set of coordinated events at UN Headquarters in New York from 18-20 November.  This year, participants reflected on the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the set of interconnected water-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, that set out a broad and ambitious vision for the coming fifteen years. Member States reviewed what had been done to achieve the targets set by the MDGs and looked at the practical implications of the commitments which have been made for the SDGs.

Photo: Click on the image above to fgo to sustainabledevelopment.un.org and find out more

The UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), began monitoring this whole area in 1990, and has provided regular estimates of progress towards the MDG targets, tracking changes over the 25 years to 2015. In 1990, global coverage of the use of improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities stood at 76 per cent and 54 per cent, with respective MDG targets of 88 per cent and 77 per cent by 2015. The challenges were huge, as the global figures hid vast disparities in coverage between countries, many of which were battling poverty, instability and rapid population growth. Did we hit the targets?

The UNICEF/WHO Joint report ’25 years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water 2015 Update and MDG Assessment’ gives an extensive picture of the ways in which countries have responded since 2000, to the provision of access to clean safe drinking water and sanitation.

 

Click on the image above to go to UNICEF & view the Report ’25 years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water 2015 Update and MDG Assessment’

The report states: "The MDG target called for halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation between 1990 and 2015. During the MDG period, it is estimated that use of improved sanitation facilities rose from 54 per cent to 68 per cent globally … Almost all developed countries have achieved universal access, but sanitation coverage varies widely in developing countries … Nearly one third of the current global population has gained access to an improved sanitation facility since 1990, a total of 2.1 billion people.”

 

Photo: UNICEF/WHO report – click on image to go to UNICEF & view the report

The same UNICEF/WHO Report also states that “Getting through the basics
has revealed hidden issues such as the provision of safe toilets and
sanitary wear for young girls and women in schools and colleges to
ensure that they can take advantage of the education offered”. This is something that the newly agreed Sustainable Development Goals aims to tackle. 

---

UNICEF/WHO set out the issues related to Menstrual hygiene management, stating:

“Access to basic facilities for menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is critically important for women’s health, safety and dignity … Globally, there is very little comparable information available on menstrual hygiene management. However, the lack of basic sanitation and drinking water facilities, as documented earlier in this report, suggests that many women lack a suitable place for managing menstruation. Assuming at least half of the 946 million people globally who lack any kind of facility and defecate in the open are female, a conservative estimate would suggest that at least 500 million women and girls lack adequate facilities for MHM.”

This is a problem which also intersects with gender-based violence. Where sanitation is not available, women’s safety is compromised. For every women or girl who does not have reliable access to safe sanitation, they risk social shaming, harassment and even physcial violence. For many women and girls, by improving access to sanitation, we will help reduce health risks, and threats of violence.   

Soroptimists have worked for many years to provide suitable toilets in schools but are now turning their attention to developing the manufacture of affordable sanitary pads.  One club, SI Chennai, with the financial help of many other clubs have been able to set up a small manufacturing unit which has provided employment for young street women as well as enabling many women in the area to have affordable sanitary wear.  As a result of hearing about this project, one of the clubs in Africa has been raising funds to establish a similar unit, attracting funding support from clubs across all federations.

As we look towards building on the progress made between 2000 and 2015, Soroptimist will continue to work towards ensuring that women and girls have toilets to use and to ensure that these toilets can be used in safety.  The targets for 2030 are yet again ambitious but working together and with partners at international and grassroots level it should be possible to see many more women and girls able to secure healthy and hygienic lives in safety. 

  

---

 

This year for World Toilet Day, photographers from Reuters takes us on a journey around the world’s diverse toilets.

Using their interactive map, you can view images of 45 toilets in different locations around globe. Let the images tell the story – visit the site here: http://widerimage.reuters.com/story/around-the-world-in-45-toilets

 

World Toilet Day Global Sanitation Crisis

http://www.worldtoiletday.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/WTD2015_FACT-SHEET.pdf

---

 

Soroptimists in action

 Soroptimists
are committed to take action by implementing projects on access to
water, water purification, fair distribution and management of water,
sanitation with a gender balanced approach, hygiene and health care, and
building gender appropriate sanitation facilities (especially in
schools), and by building local capacity in women in regard to water and
sanitation initiatives.

Walking great distances to collect water is often the responsibility of women and girls. On their walks they become targets for violence. Hoping to help tackle this problem, along with issues of water-borne diseases and general hygiene, SI Cotonou, Benin, installed a water tower in Agnangnan. This area, with a population of over 375,000 people, has experienced a series of problems due to a lack of safe sanitation. By installing the water tower, SI Contonou has helped reduce the health risks faced by everyone in the community, and the threat of violence for women and girls.

 

Photo:  SI Cotonou, Benin – water tower in Agnangnan

SI of Chino Hills and Inland Empire, USA partnered with two organisations to drill wells in Guatamala. A member of the club was part of the eight person project team that travelled to the village to assist in drilling and building the well. As part of the project, which brought an end to women and girls walking miles for water, there were Soroptimist-lead hygiene classes to the women and girls of the village.
 
SI Lautoka, Fiji alleviated the vulnerability of students at a special needs school by equipping the school with a water tank. Before the water tank was installed, younger students, as well as girls during menstruation, were not able to go to the washroom or access facilities that would allow them to stay in school. Due to the special needs of the students, the challenges they faced due to insufficient sanitation was even more acute. With the water tank, girls are able to stay in a safe, secure school and receive vocational training, and teachers are better able to care for their students.
 

 

Photo: SI Lautoka, Fiji – water tank at school

SI Pune Metro East, India took action in helping women gain access to safe female sanitary
wear. The club identified the main barriers to the use of sanitary wear by rural women and those with low
incomes. These barriers  included availability, affordability and a lack of
awareness.  Doctors in India have
reported that the unsafe use of alternative sanitary care methods, such as unsterilised
clothes and the use of sand and ash, make women susceptible to infection. Many women and
girls cannot afford to buy sanitary wear, leading to the use of these dangerous alternatives,
especially those in rural areas. As menstruation is a subject widely considered to be
a cultural taboo in India, it is particularly challenging to raise awareness of the serious
risks associated with the use of unhygienic alternatives to sanitary wear.

 

Photo:  SI Pune Metro East – a unit to manufacture organic low cost sanitary wear.

SI Pune Metro East sought to engage with this issue, through the
education of adolescent girls and women regarding cost-effective,
eco-friendly sanitary
products. To help women gain access, SI Pune Metro East,
with the support of SI Arnheim, set up a unit in order to manufacture
organic low cost
sanitary wear. This extremely innovative production has already begun,
and women are increasingly interested
in buying the eco-pads. Popularity is spreading by word-of-mouth
throughout local communities and ultimately, SI Pune Metro East hopes
the model can be replicated in other rural and urban areas, in order
that
women and adolescent girls will gain access to the sanitation they need,
whilst additionally being
environmentally responsible.