Sanitation Facilities

Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces. An improved sanitation facility is one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact. Improved sanitation generally involves physically closer facilities, less waiting time, and safer disposal of excreta. Poor sanitation is responsible for one of the heaviest existing disease burdens worldwide. The diseases associated with poor sanitation and unsafe water account for about 10% of the global burden of disease. The most common disease of poor health associated with poor sanitation is a diarrhoeal disease. Globally, about 1.7 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases, and 90% are children under 5 years of age, mostly in developing countries. 88% percent of cases of diarrhoeal diseases worldwide are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene.

In this essay I will analyse the economic benefits of sanitation, the economic disadvantages, the link between a rise in GDP and the access to sanitation in regions all over the world including Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. I will do this by analysing data set curves which I have obtained from a various amount of sources such as national journals, reports and articles relating to this subject. I will be using data sets from the UNEP and carrying out multiple regressions. Finally I will be looking at the Environmental Kuznets model to see whether it applies to this relationship between economic growth and the access to sanitation.

According to 2010 figures, approximately 2 billion people do not use improved sanitation facilities, two-thirds of which live in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. By looking at Figure 1 we can see that it is in the developed regions such as North America and parts of Europe where people have a good access to sanitation, while on the other hand it is the mostly the developing regions such as Asia and sub-Saharan Africa