Hygiene Promotion - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

2. Why hygiene promotion matters2.1 Facts and figuresLots of “facts and figures” have been bandied around over the years to bring home theshameful results of neglecting water, sanitation and hygiene improvements in nationaldevelopment programmes. Some of the statistics have been highly debatable andadvocacy campaigns have been jeopardised when the statistical foundation has beenshown to be fragile. As part of the WASH advocacy campaign, the Water Supply andSanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) has assembled a collection of validated factsand figures, which can be used with confidence. They paint a powerful enough picture ofour dirty world and the death, disease and indignities it imposes on huge numbers of itspoorest people. Our global message is stronger if we stick to these validated figures andadd to them only when we can substantiate the extra ones.Let’s look at a few:• The number of children dying from diarrhoeal disease is equivalent to twenty jumbojets a day crashing with the loss of approaching 300 lives in each.• Sixty percent of the population of the Third World, amounting to some 2.4 billionpeople have no access to hygienic means of personal sanitation; 1.1 billion of them donot even have access to a supply of safe drinking water• Improved water quality reduces childhood diarrhoea by 15-20% BUT better hygienethrough handwashing and safe food handling reduces it by 35% AND safe disposal ofchildren’s faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40%.For a fuller list of facts and figures to use in your advocacy for better hygiene, look atAppendix 4 for WASH Facts and Figures.2.2 Social and economic paybackThe reasons for investing in hygiene promotion are both social and economic. They hingeon the health benefits coming from better hygiene, and the payback is high in comparisonwith the investment needs. Here is a list of why hygiene promotion matters:• Diarrhoeal disease is the second largest killer of children under five in developingcountries and combating diarrhoea is usually the prime reason for investing in WSSimprovements. But, it is the combination of improved sanitation facilities and goodhygiene that contributes most to reducing diarrhoeal disease. The best justification forthis comes from a 1991 paper by Steve Esrey, which includes a version of thediagram, on the following page.Diarrhoea causes dehydration and kills approximately 2.2 million people, mostly children,every year. Children are more likely than adults to die from diarrhoea because theybecome dehydrated more quickly. In the past 10 years, diarrhoea has killed more childrenthan all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II. Its occurrence is closelyIRC International Water and Sanitation Centre 7