Sanitation - WHO

Key facts

• In 2017, 45% of the global population (3.4 billion people) used a safely managed sanitation service.
• 31% of the global population (2.4 billion people) used private sanitation facilities connected to sewers from which wastewater was treated.
• 14% of the global population (1.0 billion people) used toilets or latrines where excreta were disposed of in situ.
• 74% of the world’s population (5.5 billion people) used at least a basic sanitation service.
• 2.0 billion people still do not have basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines.
• Of these, 673 million still defecate in the open, for example in street gutters, behind bushes or into open bodies of water.
• At least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by wastewater.
• Cropland in peri-urban areas irrigated by mostly untreated urban wastewater is estimated to be approximately 36 million hectares (equivalent to the size of Germany)
• Poor sanitation is linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio and exacerbates stunting.
• Poor sanitation reduces human well-being, social and economic development due to impacts such as anxiety, risk of sexual assault, and lost educational opportunities.
• Inadequate sanitation is estimated to cause 432 000 diarrhoeal deaths annually and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Poor sanitation also contributes to malnutrition.