Millions of children suffer from lack of sanitation, which affects approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide.1 Children’s health, education, and futures remain at risk as long as adequate sanitation is not available to them and their families.
Inadequate sanitation leads to devastating numbers of children dying of preventable diseases every year. Those under the age of five are the most vulnerable to the serious effects of unsafe water and inadequate sanitation facilities and practices. Many children in the developing world live with constant diarrhea caused by lack of safe water and sanitation, and each year over a million children die from diarrheal diseases.16
In some cultures, infant feces are considered safe to handle, but the truth is the opposite. Infant and child feces carry a greater pathogen load and often end up in or near the home. Unsafe disposal of child excreta poses health risks to anyone in the household by allowing diseases to thrive and rapidly spread. In addition to diarrheal diseases, 400 million children are infected with intestinal worms worldwide.
Providing adequate sanitation facilities is key to stopping the spread of water-related diseases such as cholera, malaria, trachoma, schistosomiasis, typhoid and guinea worm. While access to safe water can decrease childhood water-related deaths, improved hygiene practices such as handwashing reduces deaths caused from diarrhea by more than a third, and access to adequate sanitation reduces rates by nearly half.17
Providing adequate sanitation for all people, especially children, is a crucial part of improving life in developing areas. Lifewater strives to provide communities with education on disease transmission, effective latrine construction, and latrine operation and maintenance. Lifewater also works to change social attitudes and behaviors towards proper waste disposal in the hopes of bringing about lasting improvements to health and well being.
