Tag: disease

The ‘Great Stink’ of the 21st Century

INVITATION to a World Water Day 2008 event hosted by Earthscan and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Join us for a panel discussion to launch The Last Taboo*: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis – a new book supported by UNICEF, on the global sanitation crisis

thelasttabooTOPIC: The ‘Great Stink’ of the 21st Century

Why do 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhoeal disease? Because tiny particles of excreta get into their mouths. How? Because 150 years after ‘The Great Stink of London’ brought about a sanitation revolution, 2.6 billion people – 40% of the global population – do not have a decent place to ‘go’ and their bodily wastes are left lying about. Diarrhoeal diseases are not ‘water-related’, they are ‘s**t-related’. Until we call a spade a spade, this scandal will continue.

2008 is the International Year of Sanitation, and now is the time to speak out boldly and open up the excretory frontier. Join the speakers to insist that ways be found to overcome the silence which inhibits the access of millions of people from that basic necessity for public health and human dignity – a toilet.

Speakers: Maggie Black, co-author of The Last Taboo; Professor Sandy Cairncross, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Girish Menon, International Operations Director at Water Aid, DFID speaker to be confirmed

When: 20th March 2008

Time: 1pm – 2:30pm

Venue: The Lucas Room, London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, London, UK

Location map: www.lshtm.ac.uk/location

*About the book
The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis, by Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett, brings this neglected topic out of the closet. This highly readable book is aimed at all readers interested in the causes and consequences of this global sanitation crisis. Discounted copies will be available at the event. Those who can’t make it to the event can purchase copies online.

Did you know…

Did you know that globally some 2.6 billion people are without access to any kind of improved sanitation?

Did you know that more than 2.2 million people, mostly in developing countries, die each year from diseases associated with poor water and sanitation conditions?

Did you know that the most affected group is the one of children under the age of 5?

Did you know that sanitation rarely receives the required attention and priority by politicians and civil society alike despite its key importance on many other sectors and for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?

People often do not want to talk about sanitation, and when asked about their wishes, you’ll often hear answers like “a new tv set, a vcr, a car..” etc. instead. So how come sanitation – as a basic human need – has become such a neglected request?

And please beware: just because the above mentioned facts mainly cover developing countries, it doesn’t imply that industrialized nations are having much better sanitation systems! Just think of the public toilet system in your town and ask yourself: would you want to use these toilets (if any) for your next nature’s call?

See?

With this small blog on the internet, we’ll try to display various approaches to an improved sanitation, cover some good and bad technologies and hopefully help to put sanitation on your agenda.

Because change will only happen if people really want it.