A woman in Baghdad, Iraq feeds her baby a mixture of oral rehydration salts (ORS) to fight diarrhoeal disease. © UNICEF/HQ03-0504/ SHEHZAD NOORANI
Unicef Video |
In Mozambique, every additional school equipped with latrines means another step towards preventing unnecessary child deaths from water-borne diseases. Read More>> View>> Format: wvx (web streaming) |
WHO Facts and Figures |
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene links to Health Fact Sheet (2004 figures) [English], [Spanish], [French] |
UNICEF factsheets |
Sanitation is Vital for Human Health
Factsheet Sanitation is vital for health >>
Sanitation is the most important medical advance since 1840, according to a reader survey in the British Medical Journal. Improved sanitation reduces cholera, worms, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition, among other maladies, that cause disease and death in millions of people. Today 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
Further Reading
Safer Water, Better Health - Costs, benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health Almost one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. WHO 2008. Link>>
Healthy villages: A guide for communities and community health This guide is intended to provide community leaders with information to assist them in implementing and sustaining a health villages project. It covers topics such as water and sanitation drainage, waste management, housing quality, domestic and community hygiene, and provision of health services, providing extensive source materials for adaptation to local needs and conditions. WHO/Unicef 2002. Link>>
Facts for Life One of the world‘s most widely read books, with over 15 million copies of previous editions in use in 215 languages, lifesaving knowledge about children‘s health for parents, caregivers, health workers, government officials, journalists and teachers. Includes chapters on hygiene and diarrhoea. UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP, World Bank, 2002. Link>>
Health & Sanitation: Life Skills for Southern Sudan - Mentors' Information and Activity Book
- provides mentors with life skills to assist with threats to health from living conditions in Southern Sudan. Unicef. Link>>