About 4.5 billion people across the globe still do not have access to basic sanitation. Latin America has 389 million inhabitants in urban areas, of which 10% still do not have potable water in their homes and 14% do not have an adequate solution for liquid effluents. The numbers reflect the situation of most poor and developing countries, where a significant proportion of their population, which together make up about 60% of the world's population, still lack regular access to water and / or sewage treatment. Even with regard to water, there are still 2.1 billion people - 27% of the world's inhabitants - who are not served by a supply of drinking water.

In Brazil, for example, almost half the population, more than 100 million people, use alternative measures to deal with the waste, often throwing the sewage directly into rivers. And 34 million Brazilians do not have access to treated water.

Here are seven reasons to start thinking about Basic Sanitation:

1. Improve health: Investing in sanitation is reducing the incidence of diseases such as dengue, diarrhea, gastrointestinal infections and leptospirosis, for example.

2. Generates jobs: Sanitation networks generate jobs. Between 2005 and 2015, new investments in sanitation in Brazil sustained 142 thousand annual jobs, generating more than R $ 11 billion per year of income in the economy.

3. Collaborate with education: Children living in areas without basic sanitation have lower school performance.

4. Saving public money: Studies show that it is possible to save a fortune considering that basic sanitation provides improvements in health, reduction of child mortality, etc.

5. Tourism: Even tourism gains from investments in sanitation, as cities lose tourists because of a lack of adequate infrastructure.

6. Collaborate with the environment: Investing in basic sanitation is investing directly in the environment and a better life for the next generations. The waste dumped in the streams and tributaries reaches the rivers. And this has direct reflection on the treatment of water. That is, if the rivers were cleaner, they would spend less money to treat the water that people consume. This could have reflected, even, the rate that you pay.

7. Increases Productivity: A population with basic sanitation produces more because they lack work less.