Improving Sanitation Facilities

Local Leadership Essential

By Khilendra Basnyat

SANITATION comprises all phases of programmes for improving health. In fact, sanitation is essential to prevent diseases by creating a healthy environment.

Important Role

Among the several factors that affect health of every individual, sanitation is the one that plays an important role. This is obvious from the fact that in developed countries people are rarely attacked by diseases emanating from dirty things and have better health that the people of developing ones. However, the people of developing countries should usually fight against intestinal diseases. They often become the victims of the diseases occurring from dirt.

There is a deep impact of sanitation on communicable diseases. Studies in several countries have also shown that there can be a great reduction in diarrhoeal disease by better water supply and sanitary facilities.

According to a United Nations study, it has been evident that over a period of five years the sanitary facilities for human waste disposal can reduce the incidence of cholera by seventy-six per cent.

The chief reason why sanitation and access to an adequate and safe water supply are considered so important is the need to secure human health. A research has made clear that over fifty infections can be transferred from a diseased person to a healthy one by various direct or indirect routes involving excreta.

There are only a few urban excreta disposal system in developing countries that are well maintained and operated in order to provide consistently effective sewage disposal. Apart from this, there are many slum areas and squatter settlements in these countries in which sanitation is not only lacking, but where over-congestion and poverty defeat most plans for improvement.

In developing countries like ours, many people die prematurely due to excreta related diseases. According to a report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhoea caused by lack of safe water and sanitation directly kills six million people every year.

In accordance with another survey conducted by WHO in 1980, fifty seven per cent of the Third World's population, excluding the people's Republic of China, were without adequate water supply and seventy-five per cent were without sanitation facilities. In rural areas, it was found out that seventy-five per cent were deprived of adequate excreta disposal facilities.

The full benefit of safe water will not be obtained without the provision of basic sanitation of primary health care.

That Nepal and the Nepalese people are having to bear high economic and health costs due to the lack of sanitation and hygiene is undebatable. Water and sanitation related diseases have caused an unfair impact on the Nepalese's health.

Inadequate sanitation facilities in Nepal have been one of the major causes for the incidence of infectious diseases on a large scale. Our high infant mortality is due to gastro-enteritis which is estimated to cause up to twenty per cent of deaths in children up to one year of age.

In Nepal, eighty per cent of diseases are due to poor sanitation. Children have been found especially vulnerable to sanitation related diseases and the under-five suffer from these ailments easily.

According to a reliable source, some twenty-eight thousand children die of diarrhoea related diseases every year. They die due to poor sanitation and unsafe water.

Out of seventy-five districts, only a few have above fifty per cent latrine coverage. This shows that most Nepalese defacate in the open. In addition, washing hands after defacation and before eating food has not yet been a habit with most Nepalese. This depicts an average Nepalese living in a state of utter insanitation.

Today, our country is faced with problems such as unplanned urbanisation, decreasing supply of basic services, growing pollution and decreasing environmental conditions.

In the past, when the settlements were sparse, the disposal of garbage, although unscientific, did not create so much of a problem. However, the increasing population and the rapid construction of houses life very little space in the main areas which hindered with the disposal of waste by individuals and consequently streets and alleys turned into dumping sites thereby not only hampering the flow of traffic but the rotting garbage, emitting obnoxious stink, has proved a breeding ground for harmful germs which can give rise to various diseases.

Today, uplanned or ill-planned urban expansion has caused grave sewerage disposal problems. Due to poor and inadequate drainage, one can see tap water, dish water and filth passing through lanes and streets recklessly.

Some studies have revealed how the chances of an average Nepali child growing to be healthy are largely contingent on how the issues of clean water and sanitation and hygiene are addressed in individual households.

It has been obvious that by simply installing a water tap in a hamlet does not ensure that the villagers there become better of healthwise. In reality, diseases continue to be rampant because germs continue to have a free run in the absence of sanitation and hygiene, and killer like diarrhoea remains unchecked. Very little efforts are required to improve sanitation and hygiene of a household or a community. However, awareness is the key factor for this.

Apart from the government, there are many social organisations involved in health sectors in our country. These organi-sations along with concerned governmental departments or organi-sations can work well on sanitation. However, due to the lack of proper coordination between these organisations and concerned government bodies, there has been no satisfactory progress on sanitation.

Principal Factor

Sanitation is one of the principal factors influencing directly or indirectly the health of every individual. Local leadership is absolutely essential for bringing about substantial improvement in sanitation in the years to come.

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