Sanitation and the Bottom of the Wealth Pyramidby Aldrin Aujero | 27-07-2018 20:50 |
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 Bottom of the Pyramid The bottom of the pyramid is a term used to group financially disadvantaged people in a population. These people subsist on people less that $2.5 a day. There is an estimate of over 4 billion people that exist in the BOP, the majority of which reside in Asia and Africa. This group of people face both economic and social barriers that prevent them from reaching higher levels up the hierarchy of the pyramid. These barriers, which include education, sanitation, food security, and healthcare, also fall into basic human rights. Therefore, they present a source of inequality. Empowering the BOP would not only create foundations for equality, but also promote economic growth as more people contribute to their communities- (SOURCE: http://www.worldwatch.org/increase-labor-force-can-be-engine-development-0 ) Sanitation Basic sanitation includes providing services or facilities to safely disposal of human urine and feces. This is vital because sanitation directly affect people?s health conditions. Inadequate sanitation can lead to the spread of diseases. For example, poor people in remote areas do not have sanitary latrines, which can create water pollution. Diseases like diarrhea, cholera, hepatitis A and other health problems may occur then. Improving the sanitation services evidently can provides the low-income consumers with higher living standards and chances to pursue better lives. With 1.1 billion and 2. 5 billion people lacking access to clean water and sanitation respectively, the lack of access these basic resources remains to be a significant barrier to the development of societies around the world. The deaths caused by the lack of sanitation, reported at 3.5 million each year, leads to a decrease in the population, that is, a decrease in the number of employed people who contribute to the productivity of a country. Furthermore, since most people in remote villages without access to clean water need to walk long distances each day to water sources such as wells and rivers, a significant amount of time is consumed for water collection. The sources of clean water for remote regions can either be through community standposts or faucets, water trucks, and natural sources such as rivers and creeks – all of which require time for water extraction. For community stand posts and water trucks, people will often have to walk to the community and wait in que for the former and wait for water truck arrival and que for the latter. This then reduces people?s time that might otherwise be used to to pursue productive tasks such as working or schooling leading to(if the conditions for such are available). This leads a decline in the citizens? contribution to society and the overall productivity in the community. Moreover, the increasing demand for water sources in remote regions due to the increasing population only worsens the situation by making community water sources crowded, making ques longer, and making individual?s have a harder time collect water. The inconvenience of collecting water caused by its scarcity also allows private vendors or ?water mafias? which sell water from a higher price, sometimes ten times more expensive than water through public systems, to flourish. This is the reason why the majority of people in poorer regions often pay more for water more than those living in higher income regions leading the poorer people to spend more money on basic needs and hence not have sufficient money to save or use in profitable schemes such as investments or business. Works Cited:
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