SBS | School Based Sanitation

Threat to public health

The fact that about 2.6 billion humans around the world, especially in Africa and Asia, suffer from a lack of access to proper basic sanitation reveals the necessity of acting innovatively. Without sufficient sanitation people have to face not only an unworthy and polluted environment, but also a high risk of infection as well as a deficiency of privacy and safety.

In considering the state of public health, it becomes clear that in particular children are afflicted with life-threatening sanitation conditions – most notably at school.

• Over 980 million children under the age of 18 do not have access to adequate sanitation (UNICEF).
• Due to unhygienic toilets, hundreds of millions of school children are infected with parasites and worms (UNICEF).
• 5000 children a day die from diarrhoea which is caused by poor sanitation (UN-Water).

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