Try
to imagine, if you can, sleeping within mere feet of all of your neighbors
excrement. Imagine getting your drinking water directly out of the open sewer
that you, and everyone you know, uses as a toilet. Imagine bathing with this
water, washing your clothing in this water, or cooking with this water. Now
imagine your children having no other choice but to do the same. This tragedy
is the reality for billions around the world.
For those of us living in the more
fortunate parts of the world, it is often easy to forget that most people don’t
have access to basic every day necessities that we couldn’t imagine going
without. To the credit of the many activists working tirelessly around the
world some of these issues have become part of our society’s consciousness.
Many now know of millions of annual deaths caused by rampant starvation and
lack of access to clean water. There is one issue, equal in its scope of devastation
that has been left aside. Currently up to 2.6 BILLION people do not have access
to a sanitary bathroom; 1.5 billion don’t have access to a toilet at all. That
is more than 1/3 of the world without access to proper facilities. I understand
why this issue has yet to come to the world’s attention. I mean, who wants to
talk about going to the bathroom? It’s an incredibly uncomfortable concept, so
much so that many of the people who have this problem don’t want to talk about
it either. Despite the rather uncomfortable nature of the subject matter the
time has come for us to have a global conversation and come up with solutions
to this dire issue.
It’s
easy to want to push this issue aside; there are plenty of others that deserve
attention and resources. The fact however, is that the death toll due to this
issue is astoundingly high. Over 700,000 children per year die directly because
their communities lack access to sanitary facilities. Millions more die because
of the combination of a lack of facilities and another cause such as lack of
access to fresh water. By not having access to proper facilities people are
forced to come into contact with their own and many other people’s feces. A
small amount of feces can contain millions of viruses and bacteria as well as
thousands of parasites, any one of which finding its way into a person could
result in death. The most common illness people get because of a lack of
facilities is diarrhea. To those of us that are fortunate enough to live with a
toilet in our own home this isn’t such a big deal, but to millions of children,
in the last few years alone, diarrhea is a death sentence.
In the capital of India, New Delhi, many of its citizens don’t have access to a toilet so they use the river that runs through the heart of the city. This major river, the Yamuna, has become so polluted with shit that the water has turned ink black and you can visibly see methane bubbling out of the river.
The
scale of this global tragedy is unacceptable. We have everything we need to
begin solving this crisis right now. We don’t have to invent new technologies;
the only obstacles are finances and political will. Most of us don’t have the
finances to make a difference but many of us are in a position to petition our
political leaders to make an impactful difference. So wherever you are in the
world speak out; talk to your friends, family, and tell whomever represents you
in government that this issue is important to you. Tell them that you care for
the 2.5 billion people who suffer through this every day. Tell them that you
believe that our species is better than this, that we’re capable of so much
more, and solving this basic human need should be a top priority.
