HURRICANE Ivan in 2004 taught me a valuable lesson about sanitation; it was the first time in my adult life that I could not bathe when I wanted to, simply because we had no water.

The first week after Ivan was not problematic because we had stored enough water to last about that time. I figured we would have got back water within a week. No such luck!

By week three, I was on the road with my bottles, begging relatives, friends and strangers alike for water. Thankfully, by the end of that week, water came back. But I will never forget not being able to shower and having to ‘wipe up’ because there was little or no water. Not to mention having to flush the toilet with a bucket, etc.

While some people may have grimmer stories to tell, nevertheless it raises some of the sanitation challenges that arise when a disaster strikes.

The Joint Monitoring Programme of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) defines sanitation as the number of people or percentage of population having access to improved sanitation facilities for excreta. Dictionary.com defines it as ‘the development and application of sanitary measures for the sake of cleanliness, protecting health, etc’.

The Caribbean, which is especially vulnerable to hurricanes, has to seriously address sanitation as part of its disaster management initiatives. Yet a rapid assessment of sanitation done earlier this year shows that most islands do not have a sanitation policy. Jamaica has a draft policy and Guyana is in the process of developing one. Several other countries have addressed aspects of sanitation in other policies, but the need for a stand-alone sanitation policy has not been addressed.

According to Minister of Health and Environment, Rudyard Spencer, sanitation might very well be one of the most overlooked areas in public policy.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift to have a greater level of integration of sanitation issues,” said Spencer at a Caribbean sanitation conference held in Jamaica in April this year. “More people need to have a say in the decision and policy-making processes where sanitation is concerned.”

It is a cry that is echoed by gender and water Consultant, Linnette Vassell, who has challenged journalists to look at sanitation in a new light in their reporting.

“You rarely see stories making the link between sanitation and certain key issues,” said Vassell at a workshop for Caribbean journalists held in Jamaica in June. “If you are doing a story on people living in shelters after a disaster, explore the question of where those persons go to defecate.

Do they have anywhere to wash their hands at the shelters? How is sanitation addressed in shelter management?”

Vassell also highlighted how a lack of proper sanitation facilities makes people more vulnerable not only to diseases but also to crime.

“Imagine a young girl going down to the river or standpipe to bathe. There is no space for privacy and there is a good chance that she could get raped on her way back home,” she said.

This year is being celebrated as the International Year of Sanitation. It serves to highlight facts such as the 1.1 billion people globally who do not have enough water to provide adequate sanitation. About 1.7 million people die per year in cases attributed to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene, mainly through infectious diarrhoea. In fact, last week Westwood High School was closed because of an outbreak of gastroenteritis from contaminated water. It is still not clear how that happened, but let us just say sanitation is not something we can afford to take for granted.

Indi Mclymont-Lafayette is the regional director of Environment at Panos Caribbean, an international information and development agency.