Tackling the poo-taboo in the Pacific
What does the word “sanitation” mean to you? Going to the toilet, washing your hands, flushing the germs away out of sight and often out of mind? Or perhaps more practically, dealing with solid and liquid human waste on small islands, and even at the extreme end—the cause of diseases and even death!
Poor or inadequate sanitation can be the cause of a variety of diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and forms of meningitis. One gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts, and a hundred worm eggs. That’s what makes the safe disposal of faeces the most important of all public health priorities. Still today, the majority of illness in the world is caused by faecal matter entering the human body because of lack of safe sanitation and lack of hygiene. (…)
Addressing the issue of sanitation from more than one sector is vital for the long-term environmental sustainability and health and hygiene of our Pacific region. In the future, all water programmes need to be implemented with sound sanitation programmes.
Pacific Islands Countries will join forces with SOPAC and its partners to break through the poo-taboo and improve access to sanitation in the region. The issues of water, sanitation and hygiene should no longer be ignored in the Pacific’s development debates.
Sanitation Updates 