The latest World Health Organization (WHO) report warns that half of the world’s population still lacks adequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. This shortage led to the deaths of at least 1.4 million people in 2019.
Entitled Burden of Disease Attributable to Unsafe Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2019 Update, the paper presents estimates of the proportion of certain diseases in the population that can be attributed to these factors. The assessments include data from 183 countries, are broken down by region, age and gender, and are based on four health outcomes: diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malnutrition and soil-borne helminthiasis.
“We have seen improvements in service levels over the past decade, but progress has been uneven and insufficient,” said the director of the organization’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health.
Maria Neira stated that the need to invest in this area is more important than ever, “given the growing health risks already seen today due to conflicts, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, resurgence of cholera outbreaks and long-term development .”Threats of Climate Change”.
Diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections
According to the organization, the diarrheal diseases Most of the attributable burden was accounted for with more than a million deaths and .
Second, there was the acute respiratory infections caused by poor hand hygiene associated with 356,000 deaths and 17 million years lost.
Among children under five, 395,000 deaths were due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, accounting for 7.6% of all deaths. This includes 273,000 deaths from diarrhea and 112,000 deaths from acute respiratory infections. These diseases are the two of the leading infectious causes of death in children under the age of five in the world.
Differences by region
The report finds that there are significant differences between regions and income groups. More than three quarters of all deaths occurred in the regions of Africa and Southeast Asia 89% of related deaths occurred in low- and lower-middle-income countries. However, high-income countries are also at risk, as 18% of their diarrheal illnesses could be prevented with improved hand hygiene practices.
In the Americas, 33,200 people died from diarrheal diseases and 317,921 from acute respiratory infections.
WHO notes that the estimates included four health outcomes for which data were available to quantify impacts; However, the actual burden is likely to be significantly higher.
In this regard, experts point out The health effects of unsafe water are far-reaching and go beyond disease, as they affect social and mental well-being. In addition, climate change is likely to exacerbate many diseases that are not fully accounted for in current estimates.
recommendations
To reduce the burden of disease, WHO urges governments, with the support of United Nations agencies, multilateral partners, the private sector and civil society organisations, to take the following actions:
- Radically accelerate actions to achieve the goal of universal access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. By quantifying for the first time the health benefits associated with higher levels of these services, Updated estimates provide strong evidence support efforts to implement these commitments.
- Focus your efforts on the poorest and most disadvantaged. The burden of disease is largely due to inadequate access in low- and middle-income countries, and national estimates of access to services often mask differences within countries. As such, this access tends to be lower among rural populations and vulnerable socio-economic groups. Even in high-income countries, where access is generally good, some marginalized communities are underserved and at greater risk.
- Adjust national surveillance systems Improving data on population exposure to services securely managed as they remain in short supply in many countries. governments must Customize surveillance systems at national and local levels, taking into account the higher levels of service required under the Sustainable Development Goals, which will allow for a more accurate representation of the overall burden of disease related to unsafe services.
To help governments, the UN agency also presented a new one this Thursday Tool that allows modeling the effects of diseases in different water hygiene scenarios. The developers hope the tool will encourage informed policy making and support the strategic allocation of resources for water, sanitation and hygiene programs.