During the pandemic sanitation workers have been praised as ‘COVID warriors’ in some nations but WaterAid has found many of these workers in developing countries have been forgotten, underpaid, unprotected and left to fend for themselves.
Research carried out by WaterAid at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety and wellbeing of those who clear and dispose of faecal waste, reveals hazardous working conditions, a dangerous lack of PPE, poor training and legal protection, as well as loss of income for millions.
A WaterAid film: The burden of inheritance
WaterAid’s film team have shed light on the practise of manual scavenging. The short film is an intimate film which tells the story of a marginalised community trapped in a cycle of poverty within India’s entrenched caste system and sheds light on this illegal practise which requires those forced into it to clean, carry and dispose of human excreta by hand.
Most shockingly, manual scavengers belong overwhelmingly to a single community: the Valmiki caste, regarded as the very bottom of the intricate system that still governs who most Indians marry, what food they eat – and who unclogs their sewers. To date no one has ever been convicted for employing scavenger labour.
With unparalleled access, The Burden of Inheritance, gives a voice and visibility to an excluded and silenced community; a compelling, cinematic film that’s as unsettling and disturbing as it is hopeful and relevant.
Premier: World Toilet Day, 19th November
New studies from WaterAid reveal COVID-19 has exacerbated already horrendous conditions for sanitation workers around the world
Sanitation workers include people who clean toilets and sewers, empty latrine pits and septic tanks and operate pumping stations and treatment plants as well as those who clear faecal waste manually, sweep rubbish and transport faecal sludge. WaterAid’s findings also include solid waste workers and cleaners.
Despite providing a vital service ensuring human waste is cleared, stored and disposed of safely, WaterAid found sanitation workers are often marginalised, stigmatised and shunned as a result of their job. Many have worked on the frontline of the pandemic, throughout national lockdowns, in hospitals and quarantine centres and in the heart of communities with poor access to safe water, decent sanitation and good hygiene facilities.
Findings from South Asia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria show that:
3.6billion
people don't have a safely managed sanitation service at home.
WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
1.7billion
don't have a decent toilet of their own
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines
494million
people have no choice but to defecate in the open.
WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
"Sometimes, I come into contact with human faeces in my work. There are no handwashing stations where I work so I have to wait to go back to the office to wash my hands.”
“The major risks we face during our work are harassment, injury, loss of a limb or our lives. About two years ago, while emptying a pit at night, a concrete block from the toilet structure broke off and fell on my head.”
“They said that someone like me could never succeed in any other job. I tried several other jobs, but finally, out of desperation, I went back to doing what I’d seen my family do all their lives – cleaning.”