Water and human development (drinking water, sanitation) Essay

Water and human development (drinking water, sanitation) - Essay Example Most diseases causing deaths in developing countries are on sanitation. Diarrheal diseases such as typhoid, cholera, amoeba, and shigellosis among others are caused by poor water sanitation. Statistics show that 5000 children die every day as aresult of diarrheal diseases. This translates to every child dying in seventeen seconds. These death rates are because of inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices in developing countries. Poor sanitation has a direct link with economic growth of the country; A recent study shows that developing countries with improved sanitation achieved an annual economic growth of 3.7%, while on the other developing countries with poor sanitation, achieved only 0.7% economic growth (Chew 33). A sick society is unable to be effective in their work towards improving the economic status on their country. Most countries with water and sanitation problems spend most of their resources in treatment of diseases stemming from poor sanitation and poor hygiene practices. Accessible and affordable water is also essential in agricultural and livestock production. In the quest to reduce the disease burden stemming from poor sanitation, several institutions including states, non- governmental organizations and the private sector, have tried to come up with approaches to curb this. Kamar Kal invented an approach known as Community Lead Total Sanitation in his endeavour to promote sanitation and hygiene. The approach is based changing people’s behaviour toward achieving an Open Defecation Free society. Instead of building latrines for communities, it’s aimed at igniting change in communities through triggering.The approach uses shameful and disgusting examples, therefore,enabling people to realize the importance of an Open Defecation Free Society (Drew 76). Communities are also encouraged to use locally available materials to construct latrines. Since the invention of this method in Bangladesh,