India : How Many Toilets Does It Take to Improve Health?
Access to proper sanitation helps keep children healthy, but millions of people in the developing world still practice open defecation, putting children at risk. Diarrhea, which can result from the spread of fecal material into food or mouths, kill...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2015
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/05/24525113/india-many-toilets-take-improve-health http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22631 |
| Summary: | Access to proper sanitation helps keep
children healthy, but millions of people in the developing
world still practice open defecation, putting children at
risk. Diarrhea, which can result from the spread of fecal
material into food or mouths, kills around 800,000 children
under the age of five every year and leaves millions more
malnourished and stunted. Whats the best way to create
lasting change? Previous efforts often focused on
encouraging individuals to invest in toilets for their
households, but gains are limited if not everyone in the
village does the same. One reason may be that sanitation has
a communal element because even if only one family in a
neighborhood practices open defecation, all families may be
at risk of ingesting fecal matter. Sanitation therefore
presents a unique challenge: If an individual family invests
in a toilet, but their neighbors dont, are there still
positive benefits? What proportion of households need to
have improved sanitation for benefits to be seen across the
whole village? And whats the impact in a village that goes
from zero toilet use to full coverage? The World Bank is
committed to helping countries develop the necessary
infrastructure and practices to improve sanitation, reducing
barriers families may face in raising healthy children. To
better understand the impact of a whole village using
improved sanitation – such as private toilets or pit
latrines – compared with just a few people in the village
having access to toilets, World Bank researchers analyzed a
national survey database on more than 200,000 children
younger than four years old in rural India. More than
two-thirds of the people in the rural areas defecate in the
open. The study found that diarrhea prevalence halved when
sanitation coverage at community level is fully achieved.
The study says that these results are mostly due to the
positive spillover effects on everyones health that occurs
when all (or the overwhelming majority of) households have
toilets. The findings can help governments and development
practitioners understand the importance of taking a communal
approach to the problem. |
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