Consequences of Lack of Sanitation

Poor sanitation which has always been associated with Africa, has significant negative effects on the national economy and that 49% of all reported sickness and injuries in Sierra Leone is related to poor sanitation. Lack of adequate sanitation is a major threat to the environment which includes the degradation of the urban environment by the indiscriminate disposal of solid and liquid waste and the pollution of fresh water and lakes by untreated human waste, the result being smaller, contaminated fish catches.

The cost of environmental damage includes discouragement of the tourist trade, reduced overseas markets and revenue for fish products, reduced production from fisheries and increased purchase costs for chemical and mechanical clean-up operations. The cause of this are all sanitation-related, either from poor lake water quality or poor hygiene during the catching process. In the 90s down to 2000, there were more government aided primary schools for students; of these schools, 44.5% had water supply

Many schools, particularly rural schools had no latrines at all and of those with latrines most did not have separate latrine facilities for girls and boys. Lack of latrines especially separate latrines for girls was identified as the worst school experience for girls. This illustrates that the issue of poor sanitation is one of the special conditions which prevent girls from fuller participation and achievement in schools and to an extent force them out of school.

Following the recent implementation of the policy for universal primary education, the ratio of pupils to latrines may now exceed and may encourage further drop out especially among adolescent girls. Morbidity figures available according to outpatient diagnoses shows that diarrhea, worm infections, eye infections and skin disease accounted for 25.5% of all outpatient visits to health, while malaria (another disease related to poor sanitation) accounted for further another 35.5% (i.e. a total of 59% of all outpatient visit are accounted for by poor sanitation). The level of nutritional stunting in the country is still among the worst rates of nutritional stunting in Africa and is partly attributed to the high incidence of diarrhea, an average of 5.2 episodes a year for children under fire. By the end of April, many people had been taken ill with a total of more deaths.

This gives a case fatality rate of 4.3%, causes identified for the diarrhea outbreaks included overcrowding, lack of sanitary excreta disposal facilities, high water-tables, lack of safe drinking water, poor food hygiene in markets (vendors and purchases), and inadequate solid waste disposal. Along with a higher incidence of diarrhea, slum dwellers in swampy areas suffer a greater incidence of malaria special gender needs. Women and girls are the caretakers of the home charged with the responsibility of cooking (86%) water collection (70%) and fire wood collection (73%) child care (62%) and (88%) care for the sick and elderly.