Learn from the Ebola crisis, says WHO regional director

The World Health Organisation’s regional director for South-East Asia has called upon countries to learn from the tragic Ebola crisis in West Africa and improve sanitation, and water and hygiene services to prevent disease outbreaks.

Poonam Khetrapal Singh made the appeal in a message on Wednesday, marking the World Toilet Day.

The UN officially designated Nov 19 as the World Toilet Day last year to draw attention to the need of sanitary toilets and to make sanitation a global development priority.

Singh said inadequate sanitation was impacting health and economies of countries under the SEARO region – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.

“Every dollar spent on sanitation yields about $ 9 in savings on treatment, health-care costs and gains from more productive days,” she said.

She said the current Ebola crisis in West Africa demonstrates “the enormous importance” of adequate sanitation, water and hygiene services in preventing disease outbreaks and infection control.

“We must learn from this tragic crisis”.

The Ebola virus outbreak has shattered West Africa's three countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - where more than 5,100 people died of the infection.

The WHO observed that the virus had turned virulent because of those countries’ shoddy public health infrastructure when it dubbed the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in August.

On Toilet Day, it stressed good sanitation as it was a proven way to prevent contamination of water sources, protect the environment, prevent infectious diseases, and help reduce malnutrition, stunting, and mental stress.

A recent WHO study indicates that, in 2012, in WHO’s South-East Asia Region, 123,300 diarrhoea deaths had been estimated to have been caused by inadequate sanitation and 131,500 by inadequate hand-washing practices.

Bangladesh is also known for perennial diarrhoeal outbreaks with its “improved” sanitation facility hovering around 55 percent.

The UN does not consider toilets shared by the community as improved sanitation facility.

However, open defecation rate in Bangladesh has been reduced to three percent in 2012 from 34 percent in 1990.

The UN agency revealed major gaps in water and sanitation – especially in rural areas across the world - on Toilet Day.

It a report it says global efforts to provide improved water and sanitation for all are “gaining momentum, but serious gaps in funding continue to hamper progress”.