World Toilet Day: Experts say climate change is intensifying sanitation crisis

ALICANTE, Spain — On World Toilet Day, WASH experts say climate change is intensifying the sanitation crisis and are calling for more support.

Currently 4.2 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation. Without it, human feces can contaminate groundwater, rivers, and lakes, polluting what is often the only supply of water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. This jeopardizes people’s health by exposing them to waterborne diseases, such as cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery.

Climate change — with its increasing floods, cyclones, rising temperatures, and droughts — is aggravating the situation by causing damage to existing sanitation systems, said Hasin Jahan, Bangladesh country director at WaterAid. Floods can damage toilets, sea level rises can expose sewage pipes to corrosive saltwater, and droughts can limit water needed to empty toilets or latrines. Such events have the potential to diminish any hard-won gains in sanitation access.