Sanitation and Hygiene Policy

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
Public health policy
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
Introduction:
Good sanitation and clean water are fundamental elements for basic human rights and
well-beings. However, millions of people including children die every year because of
inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene. This occurs mainly because of poor economics
or poor infrastructure. For this reason, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has
prioritized ensuring access to water and sanitation for all. This is likely to enhance sanitation
facilities and freshwater ecosystem for countries affected by poor sanitation and hygiene issues.
According to the United Nations reports, 2.4 million people in the world lack access to basic
sanitation services and each day nearly 1, 000 children die due to preventable water and
sanitation related diarrheal issues (Kamara et al., 2017). Bouzid, Cumming and Hunter (2018)
gives the evidence that 8,, 42, 000 diarrheal disease related deaths has been attributed to water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issue thus suggesting that major proportion of disadvantaged
people lack access to safe WASH. In case of Australia, Indigenous Australians living in remote
regions particularly struggle due to lack of access to clean water and sanitation issues. Hence, as
diarrheal disease due to sanitation and hygiene issues contribute to global burden of disease and
mortality, implementing policies to promote sanitation and hygiene is critical for public health
and well-being. Policy related to hygiene and sanitation can facilitate investment in sanitation
and hygiene promotion. The aim of this report is to descriibe a new health policy for sanitation
and hygiene and describes the importance of the policy in reducing deaths due to diarrheal
disease and sanitation issues. The paper also gives insight into the method of implementation of
the policy.

2PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
Description of the health policy:
A new policy titled ‘Sanitation and hygiene policy’ has been proposed to reduce the
burden of disease due to sanitation related diseases and encourage investment in infrastructure
for maintenance of sanitation for long term period. This policy targets changing standards and
practice related to sanitation in Australia, preserving the rights of all related to access to clean
water and sanitation and introducing health promotion and economic incentives to change poor
practices related sanitation and hygiene among public. Apart from urban areas, the policy will
focus on addressing issues related to unpalatable water supplies and damaged infrastructure on
health of indigenous Australian living in rural areas. Hence, by means of these targets, the main
purpose of this policy is to provide healthy environment to all and make communities aware
about the impact of poor practices like open defecation and drinking contaminate water on
health.
By the implementation of the ‘Sanitation and Hygiene Policy’, it is expected to achieve
many positive benefits. Firstly, the policy is likely to reduce the rate of diarrheal disease and
other communicable disease in Australia by the implementation of change in water handling
process, up gradation of sanitation facilities and addressing the risk factors that lead to diarrhoea
because of poor sanitation. In addition, the policy focuses on changing practices and attitudes
towards basic hygiene and sanitation both for public as well as for other involved stakeholders.
Policy action in this area is likely to be very useful because past research evidence suggests that
disease outbreak continues in vulnerable areas despite implementation of interventions to
improve sanitation facilities and provision (Nahimana et al., 2017). Therefore, focussing on
change of attitude is likely to enhance the success of intervention and initiatives to improve
sanitation and hygiene in remote settings of Australia. Hence, the implementation of the policy

3PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
would lead to improvement in hygiene practices, water handing practices and improving
sanitations facilities within household particularly for people with poor socioeconomic issues. It
will also make the community aware about basic hygiene practices and the responsibility of
individual person in keeping their environment safe.
Issues addressed by the health policy:
The utility of the ‘Sanitation and Hygiene Policy’ for public health department of
Australia is that it can play a vital role in reducing diarrheal disease burden and reducing the
prevalence of deaths and morbidities due to diarrhoea. This is said because the policy will
facilitate monitoring of diarrhoea and other infectious cases by region and eliminating key risk
factors present in a region. Oloruntoba, Folarin and Ayede (2014) argues that diarrheal disease
is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in young children under five years and lack of
safe water and hygiene contributes to 88% of the disease burden due to diarrhoea. Lack of access
to hygienic toilet and contamination of the environment with faecal waste increases risk of
infectious disease burden and quality of life. Poor hand washing practices among mothers is also
linked to diarrheal disease incidence. Baker et al. (2016) gives the evidence that sharing a
sanitation facility with one or more household also increases risk of moderate and severe
diarrhoea. The policy focus of review of diarrhoea case and the methods for case management
will help to identify poor practices such as sharing of toilets and poor hand washing practice.
Hence, the policy will help to identify the cause behind high risk of diarrheal or other infectious
disease and can help to introduce useful changes such as basic hygiene education or
infrastructure changes to increase access to sanitation facilities for all.