Nergui Manalsuren interviews THERESE DOOLEY, UNICEF sanitation advisor
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2009 (IPS) – While 2008 declared by the U.N. as the International Year of Sanitation came and went with 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, still living without basic facilities, UNICEF s sanitation and hygiene senior advisor, Therese Dooley, says there is reason for hope.
Therese Dooley Credit: Nergui Manalsuren/IPS
Hundreds of organisations are now working alongside governments and U.N. agencies to build safe, hygienic waste disposal systems, as well as to change cultural norms so that dangerous practices like open defecation are abandoned in the poorest communities.
It is almost like a social movement, she told IPS. It is about everybody working together.
IPS correspondent Nergui Manalsuren spoke with Dooley at UNICEF headquarters in New York. Excerpts from the interview follow.
IPS: According to recent U.N. statistics, every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of a poor sanitation. That s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year. How does UNICEF hope to help resolve this global problem? TD: Sanitation is a huge issue for children. On the ground, we ve got water, sanitation and hygiene projects in about 96 countries at the moment operational. I m going to speak specifically on sanitation and hygiene because you can t distinguish sanitation from hygiene because even by building toilets and latrines, they have to be properly used, so that s when the hygiene component comes in. And, indeed, hand washing by soap after using the toilet is critical because [not doing so] is responsible for about 44 percent of diarrhea diseases.
Some of our great successes is Community-Led Total Sanitation. It s basically following a model where communities work for themselves to improve their own sanitation. We re moving away from the idea of subsidised individual latrines that may or may not be sustainable. We re getting exceedingly positive results in Asia and in Africa.
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If I take Zambia for example, it s been introduced in Zambia a year ago, in 12 communities to start with. What happens is the whole process followed by bringing the community together, the one who decides to make a change.
It s not about demonstrating shame to the community, it s about pride, and it s about the community wanting to have a clean, open defecation-free community. Within three months, all 12 communities declared themselves open defecation-free. Which means no one in those communities goes and defecates openly. And, the figures now are about 100 open defecation-free communities in Zambia. It s not just Zambia; it is Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Cambodia.
IPS: How did the International Year of Sanitation help to spotlight the problems of sanitation, mostly in the developing world? TD: The International Year of Sanitation had many achievements. The overall aim was to increase awareness among a number of different target groups. Primarily we were looking at influencing aid administration, governments, and implementers, but also the general public. We have reports that we re currently evaluating, but the preliminary results were really positive.
So, in some countries there were sanitation policies put in place, in some they started looking at strategies, or the development of standards for sanitation. In some countries it meant that it s increased the budget allocation made by government.
We also looked at multilateral and bilateral donors have they done anything special for sanitation? Have they increased their budget allocations? I think all in all the proof will come in the next six to eight months. I don t think the year is over, I think the year is just started for sanitation.
IPS: Are there any estimates of how much of funding is needed to provide adequate sanitation to the 2.6 billion people suffering from the lack of it? How much of this funding is available now? TD: There s huge difference in opinion because in some cases you have much higher investments needed for urban and urban infrastructure if you like large-scale sewage systems versus rural. But you have to do both. And, the issue is how much then is needed for ongoing maintenance and repair.
How much is currently invested is a very difficult question to answer and how much more is needed. Because one of the problems with sanitation is that it doesn t have its own ministry, or its own investment line. It can be split across the ministry of environment, the ministry of urban development, the ministry of rural development, the ministry of health.
But the reality is there s still not enough investment in sanitation. There s not enough investment at all. We re not coming near anywhere what is needed.
IPS: Are developing countries themselves doing enough to help resolve the problem? What are the success stories in the developing world? TD: There are countries that have really achieved such tremendous coverage. If you take a country like Malawi or a country like Sri Lanka, you ve got practically full coverage. If you look at the map, you sort of see that we re not going to achieve MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], but then you ve got these jewels in the middle of that map who basically are doing very well, and are achieving success.
I think what you ve got to look at is the statistics showing us that people may not be achieving the MDG but they are moving up by the ladder of success. So, the change is really desired, and people are really changing and moving. The whole issue is how we take to the next step.
The International Year of Sanitation has given us motivation and encouragement to do something, and the whole thing now is not to let it stop. And, to keep working with our colleagues and governments in developing world not only to achieve the MDG on water and sanitation, but to get best results for other MDGs. Because, sanitation affects girls, it affects schooling, health, and economy. Improving sanitation has so many benefits, but because it s so basic, people tend to forget about it.
IPS: What role does the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have in sanitation? The World Toilet Association (WTA) in Korea is currently funding sanitation projects in several developing nations, including Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Mongolia, Indonesia and Laos. What are your thoughts on this? And does UNICEF work with NGOs on the ground? TD: The role of NGOs and private sector is absolutely enormous in this whole process. UNICEF works with governments and through other partners: NGOs, private sector, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations.
I think it is crucial for sanitation because if we talk about sanitation it is almost like a social movement, the role of NGOs is very important. So, we definitely work with many of them. The WTA is one of hundreds of NGOs actively working in sanitation, and without NGOs and community-based organisations, without people who out there on the ground whether governmental or non-governmental, we can t do sanitation alone. It is about everybody working together.