Co-Authored by Mina Guli – Founder and CEO, Thirst Foundation, ultramarathoner and water campaigner and Samir Lakhani – Chief EcoSoap Officer
Let’s start this conversation with some numbers.
Over 1,000 children die each day due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrheal diseases, according to the United Nations.
And here are the words we need to repeat to stop this horror.
Water, sustainability and human rights.
Together, these are not just words, but a barometer of the state of our planet, a warning that we are on the verge of disaster and a call to action for all of us around the world. Together these words are the very essence of a better life for all. Together these words should be the credo we all live by.
Water and sustainability speak to the fundamentals. They speak to the fundamentals of how we should live – from the richest to the poorest, from those who give little thought to how the water comes from their taps, to those who have to walk six-kilometres and queue to fill up containers so their families can drink, cook and, perhaps most importantly in these uncertain days as we slowly work our way out the pandemic, ensure their hygiene and health.
They speak to the estimated 1.24-million at the refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh, a settlement that sprawls over makeshift and overcrowded camps. The refugees of Cox’s Bazar have been fleeing conflict and seeking sanctuary. Now they seek help just to live. They have limited access to food, healthcare and water. Their cramped conditions, the adverse weather conditions with monsoons ever threatening, create an exponential set of circumstances that can set in motion a chain of events that is ripe for the spread of disease.
According to the United Nations two out of every five people around the world do not have access to basic hand-washing facilities. The other statistics are even more alarming. One in four health care facilities lack basic water services; six in 10 people have no access to safely managed sanitation facilities; 2.4-billion have no access to toilets; and, more than 1,000 children die every day “due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrheal diseases”.
In a settlement such as that in Cox’s Bazar, these ratios are optimistic, to say the least. The settlement is a ticking time bomb of disease in a world still fighting a global pandemic and fearful of what might be next. But, as Mina has found on her journey around the world as she runs 200 marathons in a year to raise awareness and action for water security, hygiene starts with the smallest and most vital of actions – soap.
The World Health Organisation has stated hand hygiene saves lives. Hand washing reduces “the spread of pathogens and prevents infections, including the COVID-19 virus. Yet billions of people still lack safe water sanitation, and funding is inadequate”. That is why we are focussing on working towards Goal 6 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal campaign, which aims to ensure “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030”.
#Sweat4Soap aims to raise a bar of soap for every kilometre run or walked by people around the world for the people of Cox’s Bazar. That should translate into over one-million bars of soap for the mothers and children who live in the sprawling settlements where disease is an ever-present danger. Between 10-16 October, every kilometre run or walked will equate to one bar of soap.
The soap will be donated by Eco-Soap Bank, a non-profit organisation that saves leftover soap from manufacturers and supplies it to those who need it most. They take what might be thrown away, and in their centres in Africa and Asia, employ local women to turn it into an eco-friendly and affordable product, thereby giving these communities critical access to hygiene.
To date, we have supplied more than 35 million bars of soap, reached 7.4 million people and recycled 2.8 million kilograms of soap. We have employed 154 people to do this, which offers them a livelihood and also shows how the smallest of steps on a local level can grow to become a global solution.
It is the footsteps of these brave people at Eco-Soap we should all be following in our journey to make this planet a fair, equitable and safe haven for all. It is their example we should be emulating as we seek to ensure that the sustainability of water security is intrinsic to the uplifting and sustainability of human rights.
Water. Sustainability. Human rights.
It’s easy to say. Come and say it with us.
