The vast deficit in sanitation

“The history of men,” wrote Victor Hugo in Les Miserables, “is reflected in the history of sewers…. The sewer is the conscience of a city.” He was using the sewers of mid-19th century Paris as a metaphor for the condition of the city. However, there is a broader sense in which the state of sanitation says something about the state of a nation—and more profoundly about the state of human development.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development