Water and sanitation : the education drain

Poor access to water and sanitation is a leading cause of 104 million children worldwide being unable to attend school. In many of the world’s poorest countries children’s time is taken up collecting water for cooking and washing, or taking animals long distances to drink.

This report also shows that many children in Africa and Asia are often too sick to attend school after using dirty water. Some of the most prolific illnesses in the world are water-related. They are caused by drinking dirty water, after not being able to wash food, hands or utensils before eating, the lack of a clean and safe place to go to the toilet, or dirty stagnant pools where disease-spreading insects can breed.

The report shows that girls, who are often responsible for carrying water in Africa andAsia, are more frequently unable to attend school. They are denied an education that could help their families and their communities out of terrible poverty. It shows the links between these problems and demonstrates why governments need to act on this now in order to fulfill their promises to the world’s poor. It highlights the importance of hygiene education, and demonstrates that in a self-improving cycle children with education about good hygiene become ill less frequently, so spend more time in school. Building sanitation facilities and improving water access must go hand in hand with sensitive, appropriate water and hygiene education for them to be effective in improving school attendance and cutting child deaths and illness.