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What are the Effects of Population Growth on Sanitation?

Although it seems reasonable to think that sanitation decreases as the population grows, this is not true. Technological advancements have greatly increased sanitation. However, the world's future population may grow too fast to adequately promote sanitation.

  1. The Facts

    • Despite population growth, the percent of people with access to sanitation rose from 50 percent in 1990 to over 60 percent in 2006, but some areas of the world experience a much more extreme lack of sanitation than this, according to the World Resources Institute.

    Significance

    • Although current levels of sanitation continue to rise with the growth in population, 2.5 billion people are still in need of basic sanitation such as toilets and hot water, reports the World Resources Institute.

    Considerations

    • Public defecation is a major obstacle to good sanitation for a growing population, especially in developing parts of the world, according to WRI. Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are high population growth rates, account for the vast majority of public defecation.

    Effects

    • Increased access to sanitation improves the overall health of a growing community and other areas such as economics, reports the United Nations. In Bangladesh, separate sanitation facilities for women in schools increased female enrollment by 11 percent.

    Potential

    • The United Nations hopes to reduce a lack of access to sanitation by 50 percent by 2015. However, projected population growth shows that the current increases in sanitation will be insufficient to achieve the goal of giving 80 percent of the world population access to proper sanitation by 2015.

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