Wastewater, Health and Human well being Investing in water supply and sanitation
Economic return for water and sanitation investments for two different scenarios
US Dollars return for each dollar invested
Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern Mediterranean Africa
Latin America and Caribbeans
Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean
Scenario A Scenario B
1 000
WHO scenarios for 2015 A
B
Water Source and sanitation for the Millennium Development Goals
Regulated piped water source and sewer connection
Diarrhoea cases averted per year reaching: Thousands
Scenario A Scenario B
Mortality rate for WHO sanitary regions
430 130 1
Child
High Low
Low High Very high Adult
Source: Hutton, G., et al., Global cost-benefit analysis of water supply and sanitation interventions, Journal of Water and Health, 2007.
Figure 9: Investment to improve basic access to a safe water source and sanitation (WHO scenario A) can have a significant return with the largest impact on health in particular averting diarrhoea cases and time saved (increasing productivity). Urbanized areas provide a large proportion of GDP, therefore the future development of developing countries is dependent on the productivity of growing urban areas.
South East Asia
Western Pacific
Pacific Ocean
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
29