Global return on investment in sanitation far exceeds costs

The economic benefits of investing in sanitation are far greater than the cost of investing.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

The global return on investing in sanitation is projected at roughly $9 for every $1 spent, with even higher returns for universal coverage.

On 1 October, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and WaterAid launched a new report, Sanitation and economic development: making the case for the MDG orphan, demonstrating how global return on investment in low-cost sanitation provision would far exceed the costs. 

According to the report, the absence of adequate sanitation has a large financial impact - the analysis states that failure to implement the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015 would have an economic cost of around $38 billion per year, with sanitation accounting for 92% of this value.

The report was formally launched at a public forum at UCLA and attended by international sanitation experts including Dr Albert M. Wright, Former Co-Chair, MDG Task Force on Water and Sanitation. 

Stephen Turner, WaterAid's Director of Policy, commented:

"As the report makes clear, sanitation is one of the most neglected Millennium Development Goals. There are numerous moral and humanitarian reasons alone which justify a greater investment in sanitation, but this report makes a sound economic argument for investing in low-cost sanitation provision. On reading this report policy makers must act now with moral and economic conviction." 

Dr. Steve Commins, editor of the report and a lecturer at UCLA's Department of Urban Planning and research associate for UCLA's Globalization Research Center - Africa, added, "Investments in the provision of sanitation more than pay for themselves. The international community simply can't afford not to address the global sanitation crisis."  

2007 marks the midway point for reaching the MDGs. At the current rate of progress the sanitation target will not be met until 2076. The release of this report is timed to inform public policy debate during the United Nations' International Year of Sanitation in 2008.

Download the full report ( PDF 743Kb)

For more information, interviews and photos, please contact charlottegodber@wateraid.org, +44 (0)20 7793 4909 or +44 (0)7876 339351.

Notes to editors

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed to by developed and developing countries alike, with the aim of halving extreme poverty by 2015. Sanitation is one of, if not the, poorest performing of the goals. At current progress rates, the sanitation target will not be reached globally until 2076, and not until 2105 for Sub-Saharan Africa.