Toilets: as important as ever

Bern, 20.05.2008 - CHF 100 billion spent to lay 47,000 km of pipes, maintenance costs amounting to CHF 1.7 billion each year, public health dependant on 759 wastewater treatment plants running flawlessly: this is Switzerland’s reality, which is quite different from the reality of 2.6 billion people (40% of the world's population) who spend each day in the same insalubrious conditions that existed in our country 150 years ago. These people have no access to basic sanitation installations. Moreover, the lack of toilets kills one child every twenty seconds and claims more victims each year than AIDS. Although sanitation is critically important, people generally know very little about the issue or prefer not to discuss it. On 20 May, the coordination group for the Swiss campaign supporting the International Year of Sanitation held a press conference at Lausanne’s University of Arts and Design (ECAL). The press conference was held to draw media attention to this issue and encourage citizens, communes and companies to take action.

For the seven major agencies and associations taking part in this unprecedented Swiss campaign, the stakes are very high. Indeed, in one of the world’s cleanest countries, people do not necessarily place sanitation – a basic human right – on par with access to drinking water, which is currently the focus of everyone’s attention.

Several awareness campaigns underway
The following agencies and associations are working together as campaign partners: the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), the Swiss Water Pollution Control Association (VSA) and the Wastewater Treatment Plant Association of Western Switzerland (GRESE). The coordination group members have decided to launch several information and awareness campaigns. In addition to the press conference, the coordination group has set up a Web site: http://www.assainissement2008.ch and has organised two travelling exhibits, one of which was created by ECAL students. In addition, forty wastewater treatment plants have agreed to open their doors to the general public on the weekend of 24 and 25 May. Finally, a design contest has been launched in schools.

Sanitation in Switzerland, an invention dating back to the second half of the 19th century
During the press conference, the various speakers explained that Switzerland carries out activities in the southern hemisphere and Eastern Europe in a field that was completely unknown to the Swiss in 1850. Mr Pierre-Alain Reber, head of FOPH’s Infectious Diseases Division explained that the Industrial Revolution led to a major increase in urban population density. Overpopulation, combined with a cholera epidemic that swept through Europe led to the creation of a technical sanitation committee in Lausanne. However, it wasn’t until 1917 in St. Gallen that the first Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant was built. The new plant reconciled the need for better hygiene with the need to preserve the environment. After colossal expenditures, running water in kitchens and above-ground toilets became normal fixtures in Swiss households just prior to World War I.

Water treatment, a technological and financial challenge
The total value of Swiss infrastructures, which ensure that the population has access to quality drinking water, is currently estimated at CHF 100 billion. In addition, maintenance costs run as high as CHF 1.7 billion each year. FOEN Vice Director Willy Geiger and Lausanne’s Municipal Counsellor Olivier Français discussed the financial and technical challenges that communes face with ageing wastewater treatment plants, which will need to be replaced over the next thirty years. “The financial resources to maintain and replace these installations must be available for the long-term,” warns Willy Geiger. Micropolluants, i.e. concentrations of household chemicals, pharmaceutical compounds and fertilisers are another major challenge.

Solidarity rather than resignation needed in the southern hemisphere
In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without basic sanitation installations, the current level of spending will need to be doubled. At their level, the SDC and SECO contribute to this effort by sponsoring initiatives designed the break the vicious circle created by the lack of sanitation: poor health, contaminated environment, poverty. “There is a very real economic return on investment in this sector,” explains SECO’s Head of Operations Werner Gruber. The SDC’s Deputy Head of the Core Themes Department, Jürg Benz, adds "If we manage to reach this MDG, we’ll end up saving USD 66 billion in terms of time, productivity and the costs associated with deaths and disease. The lack of sanitation is by no means a situation that is set in stone. There are several promising examples where progress has been made, namely Bangladesh. However, in order to tackle the problem, all three pillars of society in the northern hemisphere need to act in a spirit of solidarity. This is the message that we wish to convey with the Swiss campaign, encouraging citizens to support NGOs involved in the sanitation sector, communes to join the Solidarit’eau cooperation network and companies to contribute to the Global Fund for Sanitation.”

24 and 25 May: Open Doors Day
“Wastewater treatment professionals have joined the campaign with a great deal of enthusiasm and commitment," concludes GRESE President Vincent Theurillat. During the Open Door Day, the 2,000 professionals responsible for protecting public health and the environment will shed light on their profession and contribute in their own way to the worldwide effort to bring sanitation to southern hemisphere countries.”

Contact: Barbara Fournier, SDC spokesperson
Tel.: 031 323 08 63
E-mail: barbara.fournier@deza.admin.ch



Publisher

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
http://www.seco.admin.ch

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
http://www.deza.admin.ch/index.php?langID=1

Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/en

Federal Office of Public Health
http://www.bag.admin.ch

https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-18837.html