World Bank Sanitation Report Honors World Toilet Day

The Pacific region has seen enormous growth in urban populations as more and more people migrate from rural areas to capital cities. As a result, water, sanitation, and health care have become challenges in many parts of the region. According to a report by the World Bank, these urban hubs are now in urgent need of improvement.

The Pacific region has seen enormous growth in urban populations as more and more people migrate from rural areas to capital cities. As a result, water, sanitation, and health care have become challenges in many parts of the region. According to a report by the World Bank, these urban hubs are now in urgent need of improvement.

The World Bank released its report entitled “Unsettled: water and sanitation in urban settlement communities of the Pacific,” to coincide with World Toilet Day 2015. The report focuses on reasons why thousands of families in Melanesia (comprised of the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea) cannot access adequate clean water and basic sewage services.

The report contains a number of recommendations for affected governments, utility providers, charity groups, and philanthropists, suggesting ways these individuals and groups can work together to improve access and affordability for millions of people in the Pacific region.

According to Franz Drees-Gross, World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Pacific Islands:

“The findings of this report are, as the name suggests, unsettling – revealing the extent to which families living in informal settlements in Pacific capitals are going without safe drinking water and clean, effective toilets and other sanitation services…We hope this report starts a conversation that needs to happen in the Pacific, as informal settlements now form a significant part of cities such as Port Moresby, Honiara, Suva and Port Vila. It is crucial that decision-makers across the region work together to overcome the numerous barriers to ensuring all Pacific Islanders have access to these most basic of services.”

In the capital cities of Melanesian (Honiara, Port Moresby, Port Vila, and Suva), up to 45 percent of the population live in informal settlements. These areas consist of poorly-constructed housing, often on land to which the home dweller holds no formal legal title, and frequently in areas that would be considered unsuitable for housing in more developed countries (such as flood zones, steep hills, or undersized plots of land).

Analysts fear that as greater numbers of people move to urban areas in these countries, the percentage of people living in these inadequate conditions could grow to as much as 65 percent by 2023.

Aside from inadequate water and sanitation, health and social services have also become problematic for these populations.

“Without proper access to toilets, people are forced to use inadequate facilities which are often exposed, flooded, or inaccessible for children and the elderly,” noted Isabel Blackett, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist for the World Bank.

“The absence of water taps in or near homes requires women and children to transport heavy containers of water with serious health implications…Attitudes towards water and sanitation services in the settlements must change, otherwise the daily risks taken by women and children and the likelihood of outbreaks of water-borne diseases – which could be catastrophic to Pacific countries – will continue to rise…We’ve seen great examples of action in some parts of Honiara and Suva, which show that it is possible to implement arrangements which are beneficial not just to residents, but to governments and service providers as well.”

The World Bank’s report was prepared in cooperation with the United Nations Habitat, UNICEF, and the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility.