Background
According to the WHO and UNICEF, 3.6 billion people globally lacked safely managed sanitation in 2020. This means relying either on very basic, unsafe facilities or practicing open defecation.
Reaching the Sustainable Development Goal target of “universal access to safely managed sanitation” by 2030 will require a quadrupling of the rate of progress…
The benefit-to-cost ratio of safely managed sanitation is between 2.2-2.9*
This means that however much it costs to reach the goal of safely managed sanitation, we’ll reap more than double that in benefits!
3.6 billion people globally lacked safely managed sanitation in 2020**.
That’s about half of the world population.
The annual benefit of achieving this universally is roughly £62B*.
That’s much higher than the annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of many low-income countries…
*WaterAid (2021). Mission-critical: Invest in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green economic recovery.
**WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2021). Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000-2020: Five Years Into the SDGs.