Getting the balance right : A Red Cross Red Crescent call to address the imbalance between sanitation and water

There are 7 billion people on the planet today and by 2050, we will have welcomed another 2 billion. Currently an estimated 2.5 billion do not have access to basic sanitation, and 1.1 billion of those people still practice open defecation (15 per cent of the world’s total population). This is not only ‘an affront to human dignity’, but also a serious public health issue as faecal–oral transmitted diseases such as diarrhoea, cause at least 1.5 million deaths per year in children under 5.

Available at: http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/99218/1228400-Sanitation%20Advocacy%20paper-EN-LR%5B1%5D.pdf