When I first heard of World Toilet Day, which was observed Nov. 19, I thought it was a joke.  But after all the trips we have made to developing countries, I can assure you that this is no joking matter.  Basic sanitation is a big deal – a life and death kind of deal.

What we have seen in Haiti, for example, is an infrastructure that is woefully inadequate to properly dispose of the waste of its population. Human waste eventually leaches into the water supply, exposing people to all the associated diseases that we no longer consider threats in the United States.

In some of the poorer parts of the world the people just don’t have the education to know the very basics of sanitation. The goal of the One5 Foundation is to help build sustainable societies unburdened by thousand of people suffering from cholera, diarrhea and all the others.

The name of the One5 Foundation refers to “One Child, One World, Five Killers,” which are the five greatest disease killers of children around the world. Included in those five are the diarreal diseases that result from poor sanitation. With our partners, the One5 Foundation believes in designing and providing optimal, as well as comprehensive care, for orphans and vulnerable children who are disproportionately affected by poverty and insidious diseases. In addition to providing medical treatment, we specialize in designing programs that focus on prevention and education.

Here is a link to an article about the world’s “forgotten” killers of children.

Below are some facts about World Toilet Day and the effects of poor sanitation:

• Every day 5,000 children under the age of 5 die needlessly from diarrheal diseases caused by dirty water.
• For every $1 spent on sanitation at least $9 are saved in health, education and economic development.
• In the future the flush toilet will become extinct. It makes no sense to flush excreta with precious drinking water. It’s costly in terms of money and energy. In rural areas dry toilets have already become the best accepted technology. It’s called Ecological Sanitation.
• At current rates of progress the Millennium Development Goals sanitation target will not be met until the 22nd century. That’s over 80 years too late!
• Children will continue to suffer the most with shortened life spans, missed schooling, disease, malnutrition and poverty.
• 60% of all rural diseases are caused by poor hygiene and sanitation.
• More than 433 million school days are lost each year because of water-borne disease.
• At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water-borne diseases caused by pollution from untreated sewage.
• A baby born in sub-Saharan Africa is 500 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal diseases than a baby in the developed world. Even worse, diarrhoea can lead to severe malnutrition which contributes to 6 million child deaths a year.
• In Africa it is estimated that 5% of GDP is lost to the illnesses and deaths caused by poor sanitation and water.
• 40% of the world’s population have to use fields, streams, rivers, railway lines, canal banks, roadsides, plastic bags, or squalid, disease breeding buckets due to lack of proper facilities.
• Without toilets, disease and death are rife. Illness prevents people from working. It stops children going to school. It stops peace being built.
• Without toilets, human waste can contaminate water, food and causes the majority of illness in the world. Illnesses like diarrhoea, which stop children growing healthily and lead to malnutrition.