Sanitation & Education

Almost 2.5 billion people, two in every five people in the world, lack adequate sanitation, with children being one of the largest groups affected by this basic human need. Not only can the lack of adequate sanitation enable disease to impede a child’s health and physical development, it can also prevent the child from attending school. Hundreds of millions of school days are lost each year due to water-related illness.⁷

Worldwide there are 120 million primary school-aged children not attending school. Many of them are unable to attend because their schools or homes lack basic sanitation facilities, and the majority of them are girls. Of all the primary school-aged girls worldwide who are not enrolled in school, 41 percent live in South Asia and 35 percent reside in Sub-Saharan Africa.⁵

"Water is intimately linked with education and gender equality. Girls who have to spend time
gathering water for the family tend not to be in school. And where schools have sanitation, attendance is
higher, especially for girls. Water is connected to health, since millions of children get sick and die every
year from waterborne diseases caused by unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene." ^‡

Sanitation is a key factor in keeping girls in school. Over half of the girls in sub-Saharan Africa who drop out of primary school do so because of poor water and sanitation facilities.^◊ Often girls are forced to drop out of school or miss school once they reach puberty due to a lack of separate latrine facilities and sanitary supplies. By simply providing a separate latrine facility for girls, school enrollment rates for girls have been shown to improve a significant percentage.⁶

The sanitation crisis affects all children. Providing adequate sanitation and thereby reducing cases of diarrheal related diseases would add nearly 200 million days of school attendance annually.

One of the most successful methods of teaching children about proper sanitation and hygiene has been the introduction of student-led school health clubs combined with latrine and hand-washing facility construction. Through their input and desire to learn, children are the most powerful catalysts for change in schools and communities. Lifewater and its in-country partner organizations are providing students and teachers with training and materials to access and maintain sanitation facilities. Lifewater also provides tools that empower children to share their resources and knowledge with their families.

^‡ Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 12th UN Commission on Sustainable Development New York, April 28, 2004.

^◊ UNICEF and WSSCC, “Women, Water and Hygiene Are Key to Change in Africa”, Joint Press Release, Sept. 14, 2005.