Interview: Inadequate toilets contribute to child malnutrition, UNICEF says on World Toilet Day

Children living in communities with inadequate toilets are more likely to become malnourished and stunted, according to a new report released Thursday by UNICEF on World Toilet Day.

"The key issue for children is that they ingest (human waste) either through their fingers, their food, or when they play around on the ground," UNICEF Sanitation Adviser Lizette Burgers told Xinhua in an interview.

"Their intestines are constantly bombarded by (this human waste), their gut lining is infected, in simple terms they will have less absorption of the good proteins and the good materials of what they eat," she said.

While it is well known that poor sanitation and hygiene can lead to children developing recurring diarrhea or worm infections, what is less well known -- or has been until now -- says UNICEF, is the impact that this has on a child's nutrition and long-term development.

These findings are compiled in a new report released here Thursday by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and USAID, entitled "Improving Nutrition Outcomes with better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene."

"We have growing evidence that there is a real linear correlation between open defecation and stunting," said Burgers, "(and) there is also an effect on cognitive learning and cognitive development."

The report found that, 2.4 billion people still do not have toilets and 946 million defecate in the open, while each year children under five suffer 1.7 billion cases of diarrhea.

"We need to collectively say sanitation is a public health issue it is a preventive measure that we can take and it will have effect on diarrhea, it will have effect on nutrition particularly stunting or chronic under nutrition," she said.

Children in low income countries are the hardest hit, according to the report, suffering an average of three episodes of diarrhea each year.

Burgers said that addressing open defecation is an effective way to help some of the world's poorest children and their families.

"We focus on elimination of open defecation because we know that it's an equity issue, we know that the most vulnerable people ... are also the ones that have no access to toilets," she said.

However, there is some good news, said Burgers. Examples from different parts of the world including West Bengal in India, Mali and Zambia show that addressing open defecation can have a positive impact on public health.

For example, an independent study has recently shown improvements in nutrition in a community in Mali which eliminated open-defecation, said Burgers.

China has shown that substantial progress can be made in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene, she added.

"One of the countries that I think is a good example is the China example because they moved from having less than half of the population in 1990 having access to improved sanitation ... to over three quarters (by 2015)," she said. Enditem