PRESS RELEASE
Seven
in ten women in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to a safe toilet,
threatening their health and exposing them to shame, fear and even
violence.
This
means that on World Toilet Day, 19 November, 297 million African women
and girls lack safe and adequate sanitation and of those 107 million
don’t have a toilet at all.
A
survey commissioned by WaterAid of women living across five slums in
Lagos, Nigeria, showed that one in five had first or second hand
experience of verbal harassment and intimidation, or had been threatened
or physically assaulted in the last year when going to the toilet.
Anecdotal evidence from other African countries suggests that the scale
of the problem may be much larger than this.
Barbara Frost, Chief Executive of WaterAid, said:
“When
women don’t have a safe, secure and private place to go to the toilet
they are exposed and put in a vulnerable position and when they relieve
themselves in the open they risk harassment. Women are reluctant to talk
about it or complain, but the world cannot continue to ignore this.”
“Adequate
sanitation, coupled with access to clean, safe water to drink,
transforms lives, improving health, safety and productivity. Governments
are urged to take action and invest in access to sanitation and water.”
Other
studies from Uganda and Kenya show that such experiences of fear,
indignity and violence appear to be common in Africa wherever women lack
access to safe and adequate sanitation.
Sandimhia Renato, 18, from Mozambique walks 15 minutes every day to defecate in the bush.
“Sometimes
when I go I feel ashamed and go back without defecating. Sometimes I
wait until dark to go there so no one can see me. I will be very
concerned about Diani, my daughter, going to the bush because it is so
far from here. At night it is very dangerous. People get killed. A woman
and a boy were killed with knives. One woman I know of has been raped.”
Security
came out as a recurring concern in the poll of women from slums in
Lagos, with 67% of respondents saying they feel unsafe even using shared
or community toilets in a public place.
Poor
hygiene has serious implications on health. Every day, over 1,000
African mothers lose a child to diarrhoeal diseases caused by a lack of
adequate sanitation and clean water.
Lack
of decent sanitation also affects productivity and livelihoods. Women
and girls living in sub-Saharan Africa without toilet facilities spend
20 billion hours each year finding a place to go in the open, according
to figures released in a WaterAid briefing.
Barbara Frost continued:
“This
World Toilet Day, WaterAid is joining the call of hundreds of
organisations around the world, for governments to keep the promises
they have made to get adequate sanitation and safe water to the world’s
poorest people”.
WaterAid
has also released a new film showing what it would be like for women in
the western world if they also lacked sanitation. The film can be
viewed online at www.wateraid.org/1in3.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of WaterAid.
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