[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6184-S6185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FUNDING FOR SAFE, PUBLIC LATRINES IN AFRICA AND ASIA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in the year 2017, when some people live in 
extravagant homes with half a dozen or a dozen bathrooms with marble 
floors and the latest fixtures, an estimated 2.5 billion people live in 
squalor with no access to modern sanitation. One billion people have no 
access to latrines and defecate in the open, like our ancestors did 
thousands of years ago.
  The United States spends about $400 million a year on water supply 
and sanitation programs worldwide, pursuant to the Senator Paul Simon 
Water for the Poor Act of 2005. One of our late colleague's many public 
policy contributions was his focus on pressing issues such as the 
growing scarcity of clean water sources--even in our own country--and 
the preventable suffering that comes from poor sanitation. His book, 
``Tapped Out,'' is another contribution he made to greater 
understanding of these challenges. The law named for him requires the 
Secretary of State, in consultation with the U.S. Agency for 
International Development and other U.S. Government agencies, to 
develop and implement a strategy to provide affordable and equitable 
access to safe water and sanitation in developing countries.
  For the past several years, the Congress has directed that $14 
million of those funds be used specifically to design and build safe, 
public latrines in Africa and Asia. Our purpose has been to help reduce 
the risk to woman and girls, particularly in rural areas in these 
countries, who are often assaulted at night or subjected to humiliation 
and harassment, due to the lack of safe and accessible latrines.
  Unfortunately, USAID has not utilized these funds as effectively as 
we intended, and the fiscal year 2018 Department of State and Foreign 
Operations appropriations bill, which was reported unanimously by the 
Senate Appropriations Committee on September 7, specifies that not less 
than $15 million shall be made available ``to support initiatives by 
local communities in Africa and Asia to build and maintain safe, public 
latrines.''
  What we intend is not rocket science. Today communities in Africa and 
Asia, often with the assistance of small local or U.S. nongovernmental 
organizations like the Advocacy Project, are building low-cost, easy to 
maintain, public latrines. Something as basic as a latrine can 
transform a community, particularly for women and girls. Not only does 
it reduce their vulnerability to assault, it reduces the obvious health 
problems caused by open defecation. It also increases girls' access to 
education, if there are latrines for girls at schools. The cost of such 
projects can be as little as a few hundred dollars, particularly when 
members of the community volunteer their labor. Just as important as 
the design and construction is a plan for community members to 
regularly maintain the latrines and to educate the local population--
men, women, and children--on their use.
  Access to water and sanitation are fundamental to social and economic 
development. The lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation, 
coupled with poor hygiene, are leading causes of sickness and death 
worldwide. Nearly 1,000 children under age 5 die each day from diarrhea 
caused by contaminated water and from poor sanitation and hygiene. 
There are few ways to

[[Page S6185]]

safeguard a person's health and improve their dignity more basic than 
by providing them access to sanitation facilities for safely disposing 
of human waste.
  There should be no confusion about what we intend for these $15 
million. We want USAID missions in countries where women and girls in 
rural areas lack access to safe, public latrines to identify 
communities for pilot projects, where local leaders want to address 
this problem and where a small investment can make a significant 
difference. Working with those leaders and utilizing the technical 
expertise of local or U.S.-based NGOs, we can help set an example for 
other communities to replicate.
  (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered 
to be printed in the Record.)

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