Sanitation, Open Defecation and Children's Health

I never thought that I'd be interested in sanitation, but the importance quickly became obvious after only a few months in Ecuador. Basic sanitation, clean water consumption, and hand washing are among the most basic and essential hygiene practices necessary to prevent diseases and infections. It's a link that I learned about through working at the clinic in Tixan and in the more rural communities like Chalaguan, where open defecation was the norm. In Chalaguan, four babies died in my first year from various causes, but all were malnourished to some extent. Malnutrition and sanitation will always be issues close to my heart and I'm going to continue using this blog to talk about them.

I came across an article at the Guardian the other day, Will data linking open defecation to undernutrition force change?, that talks about the lack of interest in sanitation issues worldwide despite the fact that it's clearly a big problem:

The UN says countries where open defecation is most widely practised have the highest numbers of deaths of under-fives, high levels of undernutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities.

The article mostly talks about the situation in India, a country in which 48% of children under 5 are stunted despite substantial economic growth. India recently passed an enormous bill creating a $20 billion a year food program, but experts say that unless the widespread sanitation problems are addressed, increased nutrition won't make that big a dent in the percentage of malnourished children.

Also at the Guardian, UN calls for greater focus on sanitation and an end to open defecation.

Similarly, journalist Rose George talks about worldwide sanitation problems in this TED talk:

Very interesting. If you have a few minutes, check it out!

It would appear that I'm not done posting on this ole' blog yet because I'm not sure what to do with these ideas rolling around in my mind. Not sure if anyone is still reading, but enjoy if you are!