Proper sanitation is fundamental to human dignity. It is also one of the most enduring development challenges of our time and one of humanity’s oldest public health interventions. It is where questions of dignity, equality, environmental protection, health, and economic opportunity intersect.
It is, in many ways, the barometer of national development and a measure of our collective moral resolve. As humanity approaches the final stretch towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and particularly SDG 6.2 on universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, we must confront a sobering reality: the world is not on track. Unless we act with speed, unity and boldness, billions will continue to live without the most basic conditions for health, dignity, and safety.
The consequences are devastating: preventable disease, gender-based exclusion, environmental degradation, unsafe living conditions, and the loss of billions in economic productivity. But it is not all doom and gloom. There is also a story of innovation, political will, and communities demonstrating that progress is possible.
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A few days ago, I had the honour of representing SA at the World Toilet Summit in New Delhi, hosted by the Government of India, Sulabh International and the World Toilet Organisation. What I witnessed and learned in India reaffirmed a truth we must collectively embrace, and this truth is that the sanitation crisis is solvable only if we choose to solve it. The Summit’s theme — “Sanitation: Collective Responsibility for Dignity and Planet” — could not be timelier.
It is a reminder that sanitation is not only a technical matter. It is a moral, social, environmental, and developmental imperative. Our engagements at the summit reinforced what our own national efforts reveal: That where leadership is bold and policy is backed by implementation, transformation is guaranteed.
We know how to solve the sanitation crisis — the technologies exist, policy models are proven and the economic case is undeniable. Yet 3.5 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation, and over 1.7 billion are subjected to open defecation – an indignity that no human being should ever endure.
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