What if there was global threat that put 2.5 billion people at risk of disease or even death? It would seem like a fairly large threat that ought to be addressed, would it not? Such a threat exists, and it is not a foreign nation nor is it a terrorist organization. It is more mundane than either of these: the lack of proper sanitation. Indeed, the lack of adequate sanitation affects roughly 37% of the Earth’s population.  The consequences of neglecting this health crisis are far-reaching; however, the consequences of addressing this problem are equally far-reaching. In addition, this issue is particularly salient for discussions regarding the improvement of the status of women across the world.

The unavailability of toilets and clean water disproportionately affects women in the areas of health, education, and safety. According to the UN, “80 per cent of diseases in developing countries are caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, including inadequate sanitation facilities.” In fact, Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson claimed that deaths during childbirth could be dramatically reduced by having access to something as basic as clean water. In addition, Eliasson claims that not having something as simple as a toilet at school compels girls to stop attending school because of this lack of privacy and security. These are the sad realities of millions of women in developing countries.

The overwhelming health priority in these countries is to provide sanitation and not birth control. Funding for “Family Planning and Reproductive Health,” in the USAID 2015 budget amounts to $644.3 million while $171.2 million goes to sanitation. For every 1 woman that dies in childbirth, about 11 die from “water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.”[2][3] Did I forget to mention that “Maternal and Child Health” is separately funded? So family planning funding is not directly saving lives at all. Essentially, this is the choice before the international community. We can either spend foreign aid on family planning initiatives or other projects like those to improve basic sanitation which affects 2.5 billion people. Perhaps it is time we check our “privilege” and remember that access to clean water (and a toilet) is much more essential to the health of women than access to a hormonal birth control. The statistics support this conclusion even if Marie Stopes International and Planned Parenthood do not.