Vital water

   The United Nations recognizes sanitation as a real human right. Despite this, over 2 billion people around the world still don’t have access to clean, developed sanitary facilities. 

   These facts have their own consequences, for instance:

-       - Health rights can be damaged when people in countries from the 3rd world are constantly in touch with polluted water. Virus and bacteria can easily be found in feces spread over the fields, mainly in the small villages of rural emplacements.

-       - If children from these places often get sick, they won’t be able to go to school and so their educational human rights will be damaged as well.

But, in the meantime, as a matter of global common commitment and solidarity, there are several projects that are deeply involved in managing universal water access, appropriate sanitation systems and hygiene, and, at the same time, asking governments and the international community for compliance with their political commitments.

Two goals are currently trying to be met by all of these projects. First, climate change is directly affecting drinkable water availability. That’s why environmental damage by human action and a huge and excessively rapid industrial development are nowadays considered a real danger to the availability of appropriate water. On the other hand, the existence of human rights demands that public policies should ensure quality water resources for all the population, even though water is primarily used by agriculture and industry; only the remaining water, often polluted, is designated for domestic and personal use. 

Rural sanitation is a crucial challenge because the need for a secure sanitation is not even considered by the governments or segments of the population. Nevertheless, the access to a latrine in good hygienic condition becomes a vital matter for reasons of health, privacy, dignity, security and convenience. Let’s look briefly at some of the projects that are currently being carried out worldwide.

** Local communities in the Republic of Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, are being helped by sanitation companies –for instance, www.aderasa.org -. Small and medium land owners sell their animal and human excretions so that they obtain important economic discounts and have created ecological latrines. These latrines have a witty design: they can be placed wherever you want. Once the well is full of excretions, you can move the latrine to another place above a new well and use it again. The previous well will then have another purpose: an arboreal toilet. It is easy: a young tree is planted on a full well and it may grow tall ad healthy. What is more, these companies usually provide facilities to those owners that have economic problems and accept the harvest of bananas as a first payment on the latrine.

** Another good example is Bangladesh. Many organizations, local and foreign, are trying to reduce behaviors that are non-hygienic, specifically defecating outdoors. It involves a strong effort in education, knowledge of health practices, raising awareness and communal cooperation. At the same time, these organizations often face several difficulties. In addition, discussing sanitation and how we use the toilet is usually taboo. Sensitivity and great commitment are needed to generate an interesting and fruitful debate in which all residents participate freely. 

Finally, it is also very important to make people aware of having a clean latrine, to make them notice that defecating outdoors and having our hands and feet filthy are the main causes of serious illnesses and that this actually attract insects and other animals. These organizations are constantly trying to unite all the people together and create a strong, common mind. The more consistent the neighborhood union, the more the goals of the group will be reached.

The main objective, as far as the humanitarian organizations are concerned, is to create “non outdoors defecating areas” so that people really accept the consequences that come from insanity, poor health, illness and progressive soil deterioration. Small successes are being achieved; for instance, in India and in many countries in Africa, governments are determined to give public financial aid in order to develop these kind of projects. 

In conclusion, free access to sanitation has become a matter of human rights, not only in developing countries or even public health and safety. In order to achieve universal availability to a public water supply service and to appropriate sanitation. Global participation and cooperation are absolutely necessary from both governments and the people themselves. At the same time, it is not enough to build sufficient latrines in specific places, but also to educate population about the problems that may arise, to create critical social movements, to condemn and boycott discriminatory practices and to get governments involved in the final solution.

“The lotus comes from the murkiest water but grows into the purest thing” (Nita Ambani).

“It is easy for people in an air-conditioned room to continue with the policies of destroying Mother Earth. We need instead to put ourselves in the shoes of families in Bolivia and worldwide that lack water and food and suffer misery and hunger” (Evo Morales). 

Bolandres