Improving Sanitation Indicators Can Lead To Better Nutrition Outcomes

Sanitation and health are closely interlinked. An unhealthy and unsanitary environment leads to frequent diarrhoea or other diseases associated with unclean water, which in turn leads to a loss of appetite, with nutrients not being absorbed properly, and chronic anaemia. The World Health Organization estimates that as much as 50 per cent cases of children affected by undernutrition are associated with poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices.

 

The role that good sanitary practices play in creating better nourished communities is a logical corollary and studies have shown that proper sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water have many positive effects on health and nutrition.

 

The historical linkage between sanitation and nutrition can be reviewed through three closely interrelated occurrences – diarrhoeal diseases, environmental enteropathy and nematode infections. Each leads to the other and the final result is most often death.

 

In a low income country like India, large parts of the population – rural or urban – still live under primitive conditions with little or no access to proper sanitation and water. Diarrhoeal diseases mainly occur as a result of faecal matter lying out in the open and not being disposed off in a correct and timely manner. This is still a common sight in most Indian villages and a large number of city slums where the only form of sanitation available is common use toilets, which are either too few or unusable and hence the need to defecate in the open.