The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the “vicious cycle” connecting poor sanitation and malnutrition, the theme of World Toilet Day. The recently adopted 2030 Agenda recognises the central role sanitation plays in sustainable development. Ban explained that the integrated nature of the new agenda means the world needs to better understand the connections between the building blocks of development. The UN reports that every year too many children under the age of five have their lives cut short or altered forever as a result of poor sanitation: more than 800,000 children worldwide–or one every two minutes–die from diarrhoea, and almost half of all deaths of children under five are due to under-nutrition.
