The COVID-19 pandemic has been a painful case study about the consequences of not investing in longstanding, essential public health basics.
It shouldn’t be revolutionary to say that access to toilets is a basic health intervention. And yet…
- 1.5 billion people use health facilities that don’t have toilets
- 2 billion people lack access to safe sanitation, fueling diarrheal disease and outbreaks like cholera and typhoid
In September 2019, global leaders signed a Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage. This was followed in October by the Inter-Parliamentary Union Resolution on UHC. The plan to achieve UHC starts with a foundation of primary health care services: basic essential health services and products needed to prevent disease, promote health, and manage illness.
Death and suffering from preventable sanitation-linked infectious diseases is incompatible with universal health coverage. Essential health services need to include toilets.
We’re calling on sanitation and UHC advocates to join forces at the global, national, and local level. Our message is that health for all is impossible without sanitation for all. We need a universal health revo-LOO-tion.
As with all revolutions, it starts with making noise. Join us.
Take advantage of our pre-populated tweets (or draft your own) by clicking the Twitter icon in each asset below.
