Is Our Nation Ensuring all Australians’ Access to Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene?

The coronavirus crisis has brought to light the critical importance of water, sanitation and hygiene for protecting human health. Despite progress, billions of people around the globe still lack these basic services. Back in 2016, many nations gathered in New York to discuss UN sustainable development goals, which aim to improve health, wealth and well-being for countries both rich and poor.

As a developed nation, it might be assumed that Australia will easily meet these new goals at home, including “goal 6” to ensure, “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. But the sad truth is that many Australians still lack access to clean water and effective sanitation.

You may think Australia has 100% access to clean water and effective sanitation if you are located in metropolitan areas or heavily populated towns. However, this is not the case. Some remote communities struggle to meet Australian water standards.

High standards of health and well-being are unattainable without safe, clean drinking water, removal of toilet waste from the local environment, and healthy hygiene behaviours. The Western Australian government reported that drinking water in some remote communities is contaminated with uranium, faecal bacteria and nitrates above the recommended levels.

The health situation in affected communities throws up some serious facts. Australia is the only developed country that has not eradicated trachoma, a preventable tropical disease that can cause blindness. It persists in remote areas with poor hygiene, where children repeatedly pass on the infection.

Water is essential, not only to health but also to poverty reduction, food security, peace and human rights, ecosystems and education. Here at Sanokil, we believe Australia’s remote communities need more spotlight and with this blog post, draw much-needed attention to the preventable toll of water-related health issues they still experience.

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/

Sanokil can help you improve the hygiene of your workplace with our large array of hygiene services and products. Safe work Australia also has information for small businesses, a resource kit and information about how to look after your vulnerable workers.