World sanitation goals slip; nature can help

OSLO (Reuters) - “The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers,” French 19th century author Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables. “The sewer is the conscience of the city … A sewer is a cynic. It tells everything.”

Judged by its sewers, the world is not doing well. Only 3 in 10 people now have a connection to a public sewerage system.

And with the world’s population expanding, a goal of improving sanitation by 2015 is slipping out of reach, despite progress in nations such as China and a few big contracts for firms such as Veolia or Suez to build waste treatment plants in cities from La Paz to Rabat.

Experts say a part of the solution, especially to cut water-borne diseases for the rural poor, may lie in renewed and smarter exploitation of nature — for example through plants or soil bacteria that feed on waste.

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