In 2010, the United Nations introduced the right to sanitation as a human right alongside the right to drinking water – and for good reason. According to a UN report, 4.5 billion people do not have access to clean toilets.
Poor sanitation is the main cause of water contamination with pathogens. According to recent estimates, regular hand washing can reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases by about 45%. Diarrheal diseases are the leading cause of death among children under five years of age. Approximately 520,000 children die each year as a result.
Therefore, sanitation has become an important issue in development cooperation, which is also taken into account in the projects of the WaterFoundation. This involves not only the construction of toilets, but also of showers and hand-washing facilities.
In Tanzania, a CloudFisher fog collector project built toilets for 4,000 students in 2022. In Ethiopia, the first toilets were built in schools in Mulataa and Birbirsa. The largest water supply project to date in Bilaa, Ethiopia, was followed by the construction of toilets and hand washing facilities for 5,000 students and teachers. In a remote mountain region of Peru, the WaterFoundation has also set up toilets and hand-washing and showering facilities for 200 people.