hi all,
This is the direct result of the prevailing culture in India. everyting is
directed towards old ancient primintive traditions; instead of looking forward
to more progressive cultures.
Nascy Caldeira
--- On Tue, 21/12/10, D'Souza, Avelino wrote:
> NEW DELHI: Inadequate sanitation cost India almost $54
> billion or 6.4% of the country's GDP in 2006. Over 70% of
> this economic impact or about $38.5 billion was
> health-related with diarrhoea followed by acute lower
> respiratory infections accounting for 12% of the
> health-related impacts.
>
> These estimates are from '' The Economic Impacts of
> Inadequate Sanitation in India'', a new report released on
> Monday by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a global
> partnership administered by the World Bank .
>
> Christopher Juan Costain, WSP regional leader for South
> Asia pointed out that the report helped to quantify the
> economic losses to India due to inadequate sanitation and
> also showed that children and poor households bore the brunt
> of poor sanitation.
>
> More than three-fourth of the premature mortality-related
> economic losses are due to deaths and diseases in children
> younger than five. Diarrhoea among these children accounts
> for over 47% of the total health-related impact, that is
> nearly $18 billion dollars.
>
> The report estimates that in rural areas, where 50% of
> households are said to have access to improved sanitation,
> there are almost 575 million people defecating in the open.
> Similarly, in urban areas where 60-70 % of the households
> are said to have access to sanitation, 54 million people
> defecate in the open and over 60% of the waste water is
> discharged untreated.
>
> This has led to huge public health costs, besides causing
> 450,000 deaths. It has led to an estimated 575 million cases
> of diarrhoea, and 350,000 deaths from diarrhoea alone, in
> the under-five age group.
> It is the poorest who bear the greatest cost due to
> inadequate sanitation.
>
> The poorest fifth of the urban population bears the highest
> per capita economic impact of Rs 1,699, much more than the
> national average per capita loss due to inadequate
> sanitation, which is Rs 961. Among rural households too, the
> poorest fifth bears the highest per capita loss in the rural
> area at over Rs 1,000.
>
> '' And these are hugely underestimated estimates because we
> have excluded mortality impacts,'' Costain says. The report
> admitted that many economic impacts like other diseases
> influenced by hygiene and sanitation and the impacts on
> pregnant women, low birthweight and long-term health had not
> been covered.
>
> Health impacts, accounting for the bulk of the economic
> impacts, are followed by the economic losses due to the time
> spent in obtaining piped water and sanitation facilities ,
> about $15 billion, and about $0.26 billion of potential
> tourism revenue lost due to India's reputation for poor
> sanitation, the report says.
> ~Avelino
>
>
