The Sanitation Status Quo
60% of all diarrheal deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where 829 000 people every year perish as a result of poor water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene. Some 432 000 of these deaths are thought to have been caused mostly by poor sanitation, which is also a significant contributor to a number of neglected tropical diseases like intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Malnutrition is also a result of poor sanitation.
In 2020, the World Health Organisation stats show that safely managed sanitation services were used by 54% of the world’s population (4.2 billion people). Private sanitation facilities connected to sewers that treated wastewater were used by 34% (2.6 billion people), toilets or latrines were used by 20% (1.6 billion people), and at least a basic sanitation service were used by 78% of the world’s population (6.1 billion people).
Better access to water, sanitation, and hygiene could reduce the annual death toll of 297 000 children under the age of five.
The practice of open defecation which is still prevalent in many countries; feeds the cycle of disease and poverty. The countries with the highest rates of open defection also have large income gaps, the highest rates of starvation and poverty, and the highest number of infant mortality.
H2O Sanitation’s Response
H2O Sanitation is largely inspired and driven by Target 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals which calls for adequate and equitable sanitation for all.
As a growing company in the sanitation industry, H2O Sanitation Services directs efforts to assist with stopping the spread of diseases through work that promotes increasing safe and suitable sanitation infrastructure in communities. Additionally, H2O Sanitations cooperates with WASH initiatives and health initiatives that tackle lack of sanitation infrastructure, the lack of  good hygiene practices, and stigmas around menstrual health.