Our sanitation crisis

At some point in their lives, those who call this country home would have had to go through the experience of being outside when nature calls in the full knowledge that there are few, if any, public toilets nearby. While most men would still be able to make do in such a scenario, for women these circumstances can be truly harrowing. And while moments like this are simply awkward or even humorous for those of us lucky to have homes and access to proper sanitation, this is not the case for the 79 million Pakistanis who do not have access to a proper toilet, with an estimated 25 million Pakistanis still compelled to practice open defecation today. World Toilet Day, held annually on November 19, serves as a reminder of the billions of people living throughout the world without access to proper sanitation. According to the UN, around 3.4 billion people across the world live without access to safe toilets and 354 million people still practice open defecation. This is not just a convenience and safety issue. The lack of access to toilets and other sanitary facilities helps spread diseases that kill thousands of people every year, such as diarrhoea.

This is also an issue of equality, with the lack of access to toilets disproportionately impacting vulnerable groups like girls and women. Part of the reason girls make up a disproportionate number of the country’s approximately 26 million out-of-school children is that many schools simply do not have toilets and proper sanitation facilities. And while some progress has been made in improving access to sanitation, the numbers show that this progress has been too slow. Part of the issue here is that the people responsible for policies in the country often do not have to confront this issue themselves. Pakistan’s political and bureaucratic class is a notoriously closed circle that often lives a life of privilege far beyond the reach of its ordinary citizens. However, it must realise that meeting important health, equality and economic goals. How will the country make progress on things like economic inclusion and population control when girls simply cannot get an education due to a lack of toilets?

This issue is only becoming more urgent as time passes and factors like climate change begin to have an impact. Now, it is not simply a matter of there being enough toilets for everyone, but also about making sure that these toilets are resilient to climate disasters like the one we saw this monsoon. Did anyone ever ponder what kind of sanitation facilities were available among those displaced by this year’s floods? Given how fast water-borne diseases spread among the affected population after a similar disaster in 2022, we can reasonably assume that the answer is not encouraging. We need a comprehensive policy to address our sanitation woes. Sanitation is a basic human right and access to clean and safe toilets at home and outside ought not to be a luxury.