For the past 200 years we have known that water and sanitation are the single most important aspects of good public health in any community.

Poor drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene are the greatest causes of poor health, according to a recent joint report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

By 2015 about 2.4 billion people will face the risk of needless disease and death if we do not begin to make a difference. 

Poor quality drinking water and poor sanitation with decaying or non-existent sewage systems fuel the spread of disease and kill a child every 21 seconds.

A few of the diseases which are related directly or indirectly to poor drinking water, lack of proper sanitation and hygiene are: diarrhea, typhus, typhoid fever, cholera, hepatitis, malaria, dengue fever, amebiasis, hookworm disease.

Besides killing millions of people every year, poor health caused by these diseases results in low productivity and loss of earnings.

One of the most common causes of iron deficient anemia in India is hookworm disease. Forty one per cent (41%) of women between the ages of 15-49 are anaemic. Similarly, 80% of all infants under the age of three are anaemic.

Recent figures, reflecting research by the University of Toronto, reveal that India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, together, lose 4.5 billions of dollars every year because of low productivity related to anemia.

Thousands of villagers migrate from rural areas to major cities in India every year seeking better living conditions. Many of those who cannot find employment eventually succumb to living in slums and contribute to the increase in urban poverty rates.

The Need For Sanitation

Low income communities which do not have adequate sanitation facilities are exposed to high risk of infection with excreta-related diseases

Children under 3 are particularly susceptible to diarrheal diseases

Older children and adults are likely to be infected with intestinal worms commonly the human roundworms and the human hookworms

70% of India's population has no access to improved sanitation facilities.

500,000 infants die annually because of poor sanitation facilities

India loses Rs 5 billion every year in medical treatment and loss of work

90% reduction in gastroenteritis in our completed projects compared to same villages earlier.