Synergies and trade-offs between sanitation and the sustainable development goals

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Abstract

To better leverage opportunities arising out of sustainable and inclusive management of sanitation services there is a need for robust and comprehensive evidence of the wide-ranging benefits that sanitation can deliver. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework for sustainable development broken down into 169 interconnected Targets which are articulated under 17 Goals. Based on a methodology developed at University College London (UCL), this study identifies linkages between sanitation and the 169 Targets corroborated by published evidence. We show that there are synergies between sanitation and all 17 Goals and 130 (77%) of the Targets, and trade-offs for 28 (17%) of the Targets. We identified 83 Targets (49%) that call for action in the sanitation sector. The results demonstrate the far-reaching benefits that can be unlocked from investment in sanitation, which extend beyond health and spread across sectors. The evidence base for the 17 Goals establishes links that can inform cross-sectoral action, collaborations and investment across governance levels for integrated sanitation solutions. The research provides different stakeholders with a framework that can be applied to context-specific cases and projects. We propose a range of recommendations to policy makers, practitioners and researchers who seek to take this study further to help achieve the SDGs.

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Most cited references 119

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Food-borne diseases — The challenges of 20 years ago still persist while new ones continue to emerge

Diane G Newell, Marion Koopmans, Linda Verhoef … (2010)

The burden of diseases caused by food-borne pathogens remains largely unknown. Importantly data indicating trends in food-borne infectious intestinal disease is limited to a few industrialised countries, and even fewer pathogens. It has been predicted that the importance of diarrhoeal disease, mainly due to contaminated food and water, as a cause of death will decline worldwide. Evidence for such a downward trend is limited. This prediction presumes that improvements in the production and retail of microbiologically safe food will be sustained in the developed world and, moreover, will be rolled out to those countries of the developing world increasingly producing food for a global market. In this review evidence is presented to indicate that the microbiological safety of food remains a dynamic situation heavily influenced by multiple factors along the food chain from farm to fork. Sustaining food safety standards will depend on constant vigilance maintained by monitoring and surveillance but, with the rising importance of other food-related issues, such as food security, obesity and climate change, competition for resources in the future to enable this may be fierce. In addition the pathogen populations relevant to food safety are not static. Food is an excellent vehicle by which many pathogens (bacteria, viruses/prions and parasites) can reach an appropriate colonisation site in a new host. Although food production practices change, the well-recognised food-borne pathogens, such as Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli, seem able to evolve to exploit novel opportunities, for example fresh produce, and even generate new public health challenges, for example antimicrobial resistance. In addition, previously unknown food-borne pathogens, many of which are zoonotic, are constantly emerging. Current understanding of the trends in food-borne diseases for bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens has been reviewed. The bacterial pathogens are exemplified by those well-recognized by policy makers; i.e. Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes. Antimicrobial resistance in several bacterial food-borne pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella and Vibrio spp., methicillin resistant Staphylcoccus aureas, E. coli and Enterococci) has been discussed as a separate topic because of its relative importance to policy issues. Awareness and surveillance of viral food-borne pathogens is generally poor but emphasis is placed on Norovirus, Hepatitis A, rotaviruses and newly emerging viruses such as SARS. Many food-borne parasitic pathogens are known (for example Ascaris, Cryptosporidia and Trichinella) but few of these are effectively monitored in foods, livestock and wildlife and their epidemiology through the food-chain is poorly understood. The lessons learned and future challenges in each topic are debated. It is clear that one overall challenge is the generation and maintenance of constructive dialogue and collaboration between public health, veterinary and food safety experts, bringing together multidisciplinary skills and multi-pathogen expertise. Such collaboration is essential to monitor changing trends in the well-recognised diseases and detect emerging pathogens. It will also be necessary understand the multiple interactions these pathogens have with their environments during transmission along the food chain in order to develop effective prevention and control strategies.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): UCL Open Environ

Journal ID (publisher-id): UCLOE

Title: UCL Open Environment

Abbreviated Title: UCL Open Environ

Publisher: UCL Press (UK )

ISSN (Electronic): 2632-0886

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 27 April 2021

Publication date (Electronic, collection): 2021

Volume: 2

Electronic Location Identifier: e016

Affiliations

[1 ]Engineering for International Development Centre, Bartlett School of Construction Project Management, University College London, 1–19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, UK

[2 ]Engineering for International Development Centre, Bartlett School of Construction Project Management, University College London, 1–19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, UK

[3 ]Environmental and Sustainable Development, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, 34 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, UK

[4 ]Energy, Resources and Development, UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK

[5 ]Environmental Engineering, Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Chadwick Building, London WC1E 6BT, UK

[6 ]The Bartlett School of Planning, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK

[7 ]Energy and Development Policy, UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP), Shropshire House (4th Fl), 11–20 Caper Street, London WC1E 6JA, UK

[8 ]Sustainable Development Law and Policy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

[9 ]Integrated Community Child Health, Population, Policy & Practice Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK

[10 ]Whittington NHS Trust, Magdala Ave, London N19 5NF, London, UK

Author notes

*Corresponding author: E-mail: priti.parikh@ 123456ucl.ac.uk

Author information

Priti Parikh https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1086-4190

Article

DOI: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000016

PMC ID: 10208324

PubMed ID: 37228800

SO-VID: aa4bd437-fc7e-4b1a-a3a3-b2ee92b7c1ab

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 18 August 2020

Date accepted : 18 March 2021

Page count

Figures: 2, Tables: 1, References: 122, Pages: 45

Funding

This research has been supported by the Vitol Foundation with in-kind contribution from University College London and led by UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre.