Handwashing Day on 15 October
According to the United Nations a third of the
world’s population has no access to adequate sanitation
facilities, resulting in the death of about 1.5 million children
from diarrhoea and other water borne diseases every year.
Studies show that handwashing with soap reduces the incidence of
these diseases and their severe impact on a community’s health,
economic and education situation. Sensitizing people to the
importance of washing their hands with water on a regular basis
is an achievement, but using soap as well enhances the positive
benefits. Soap breaks down the grease and dirt that carry the
germs, bacteria or viruses and can interrupt the transmission
pathway to the individual and to other people.
2008 is the International Year of Sanitation. Activities and
conferences around the world aim to improve global sanitation
and achieve one of the targets of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), namely to “halve the proportion of population
without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation”. As part of the International Year the first-ever
“Global Handwashing Day” on 15 October 2008 seeks to promote
improved hygiene practices and to draw attention to the enormous
sanitation challenge facing the world.
The topics sanitation and personal hygiene are part of the
Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation - Water Sector Program, in
particular Component 5 “Community-based Water Use in Water
Scarce Areas” in Amran, which aims to improve water resources
management in four districts. In its broad awareness approach
through female awareness trainers and so-called Village Water
Committees, it addresses the different stakeholders, in
particular women. Many of the tasks a woman fulfils each day are
related or connected to water: cooking, washing, fetching water,
taking care of children and elderly people.
In establishing literacy classes, GTZ hopes to strengthen the
women’s position, and giving them access to information allows
them to participate more actively in public life and society.
Learning about themes like sanitation and hygiene (including
handwashing with soap) can have a positive impact on community
health and water management. Since water is so scarce in Yemen,
personal hygiene has a low priority and open defecation is the
predominant norm. According to UN standards and indicators, such
“unimproved sanitation facilities” are incompatible with the
MDGs and means that the road to achieving them remains a very
long one. Hopefully, hand washing can become one more way of
improving the quality of life and health along that road.
October 2008
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