The Pacific Islands may conjure up images of vast coastlines and picturesque landscapes. But while this a part of the world may seem like paradise, many locals face a serious public health problem.

By Pacific Nationsalmost half one million people they live in informal urban settlements that lack adequate sanitation, which can result in limited access to functioning toilets.

This has an impact on health, well-being, education and livelihoods, especially for girlschildren, elderly people and disabled people.

Our recent study published in the journal Nature Pure water NPJWe examined the state of sanitation in several informal urban settlements in two Pacific countries – Fiji and Vanuatu. Our findings show that this is an issue that requires urgent attention.

Field research

We worked with researchers from the University of the South Pacific to survey households and examine sanitation infrastructure. Our team surveyed 393 households in nine informal urban settlements in the capitals of Fiji (Suva) and Vanuatu (Port Vila).

These housing estates are developing when people decide on uninhabited land that has not been planned for development, often due to a scarcity of reasonably priced housing options. Informal urban settlements often lack access to basic services and infrastructure, corresponding to sewage systems, electricity, paved roads and waste collection.

We found that although piped water is available, the majority of households (between 56% and 100% of households in each settlement) still depend on unsafe sanitation to manage human waste. Many use poorly constructed dry pits – for instance, a plinth over a hole in the ground – or cesspools. These toilets have no plumbing and do not use running water for flushing. All are positioned on-site (in or near the home), meaning that waste, treated or untreated, stays in the settlement.

In addition to on a regular basis challenges, we found that one in three households loses access to functioning toilets during heavy rains, cyclones or floods. Dry well systems are 4 to eight times more likely to be damaged during climate events than water systems in the same settlements.

We also found that secure waste management, particularly from septic tanks and pits, poses significant challenges for residents. Even when toilets can be found and functioning properly, there is often no secure and sustainable way to manage waste that accumulates in pits and tanks.

In many cases, sediment is dumped into open areas in the settlement, into local rivers, or seeps into the ground. This can contaminate water sources and create serious environmental and public health hazards.

In addition, we found that cyclones and heavy rains destroy sanitation systems, causing sewage to overflow and contaminating water resources.

Communities in danger

Melanesian countries, including Vanuatu and Fiji, are particularly vulnerable to serious climatic hazardswhich makes it crucial that the sanitation infrastructure in informal urban settlements is able to withstand these environmental hazards.

Poor sanitary conditions in these areas leads to the spread diseases corresponding to diarrheaintestinal worms and trachoma. Studies show that improving water and sanitation systems significantly reduce the risk child deaths and deaths attributable to diarrhea.

Estimates from the World Health Organization and UNICEF indicate that lower than 3% urban population in Fiji and Vanuatu use unimproved or unsafe sanitation facilities – that is, facilities that do not allow for the secure collection, treatment and disposal of human waste.

This figure contrasts sharply with our finding that the majority of households in informal urban settlements depend on unsafe sanitation conditions. It highlights the need for improved monitoring strategies that distinguish informal settlements from formally planned areas.

How can we solve this problem?

Toilets alone won’t solve the problem. Communities need a comprehensive approach that addresses sanitation management at every stage. This will include creating a whole service chain that ensures reliable waste removal, treatment and disposal, and is resilient to disasters.

This means constructing local expertise, supporting local service providers, ensuring systems are well maintained and promoting community ownership of those systems to ensure long-term sustainability.

In informal settlements, the provision of those services is rather more difficult than in formal urban areas, mainly due to the uncertain land tenure situation and limited access to adequate infrastructure, which makes the work of service providers difficult.

However, a significant slice of the urban population of the Pacific living in informal settlementsfinding effective ways to safely manage sanitation conditions in these communities is essential.

This sixth sustainable development goal goals to provide clean water and sanitation for all. Addressing the sanitation crisis in the Pacific Islands is about protecting health, restoring dignity, supporting livelihoods and constructing resilience at the household and community level, that are at the frontline of an increasingly uncertain future.

What does visibility seem like? Growing up in Ethiopia, SheaMoisture Grant– Filmmaker and artist Herrana Addisu’s work is devoted to shedding light on women in conflict and wonder standards in her home country. This can also be the case in her latest film, supported by Tina Knowles. “[River is] “It’s a story that I’ve been writing in my head my whole life because it’s the foundation of my life and my livelihood as a child,” Addisu tells ESSENCE.

After winning the Blueprint Grant last August, SheaMoisture has taken on the role of a creative agency Chucha Studio to produce a movie that might bring to life a narrative that the black community could relate to. Focusing on culturally and politically sensitive topics—from access to water and education to ancestral lessons, forced marriages, and wonder standards—Adisu took the funds back to Ethiopia (to work with an area production house Dog Movies) tell her story.

“I wanted the film to have these complicated conversations that we don’t always have in this day and age,” she says. For example, Ethiopian stick-and-poke tattooing (often known as “Niksat”) is a typical tradition that runs through each of her pieces. “Growing up, I always thought it was beautiful,” she says. “But there’s a certain reluctance to do it, because a lot of women don’t feel like they’re consenting to have a permanent tattoo.”

Referencing cultural and traditional views of beauty, she cites spiritual icons of black hair within the church as a central theme. “Our old Bibles and paintings that I grew up seeing are of black angels and they have mini afros,” says Addisu, who placed them on the actors alongside cornrows, scarves and hairdos. “My blackness was so obvious to me that I wanted to show that in the film as well.”

But as an artist, she also embodies the sweetness she captures. After shooting in Ethiopia, Adisu returned to New York to take part in the series alongside .[Photographer] Kendall Bessant I had the concept to test my limits in doing this cone on my head,” she says. “It’s very easy to push those limits to a certain extent once you’re behind the lens after which in front of it.”

In one photo, she props her chin on a jewellery stand, her hair bouffant, and in one other, her curls are in front of a riverscape, alluding to the source of life within the film. “Water flows in the global South, especially in the rivers of Utopia, are very important not only in rural communities but also in urban ones,” she says.

But the river can also be a source of vulnerability for ladies, who’re exposed to violence, kidnapping and trafficking as they carry water. “I thought that was a powerful catalyst that brought the whole aspect of the film together.”

One of essentially the most common feelings related to chronic pain is fatigue, which may grow to be overwhelming. People with chronic pain may report feeling lacking in energy and motivation to interact with others or the world around them.

In fact, a UK study of individuals with chronic health problems found that pain and fatigue were the 2 biggest barriers for an energetic and meaningful life.

But why is long-term pain so debilitating? One clue lies in the character of pain and its powerful influence on our thoughts and behaviors.

Short-term pain can protect you

Contemporary ways of fascinated by pain emphasize its protective properties—the way in which it grabs our attention and forces us to alter our behavior to be able to protect an element of our body.

Try this. Slowly pinch the skin. As you increase the pressure, you’ll notice that the feeling changes until it becomes painful. The pain is what keeps you from squeezing harder, right? It’s how pain protects us.

When we’re injured, tissue damage or inflammation makes our pain system more sensitive. This pain stops us from mechanically stressing the injured tissue while it heals. For example, the pain of a broken leg or a cut under the foot means we avoid walking on it.

The concept that “pain protects us and promotes healing” is one of the crucial vital things that folks with chronic pain tell us. they learned what helped them recuperate.

However, long-term pain can overprotect you

In the short term, pain serves an especially effective protective function, and the longer our pain system is energetic, the more protection it provides.

But persistent pain may also help us prevent recovery. People affected by pain call it “hypersensitivity of the pain system”. Think of your pain system as being on alert. And that is where exhaustion is available in.

When pain becomes an on a regular basis experience, triggered or reinforced by an ever-widening range of activities, contexts, and cues, it becomes a relentless drain on resources. Living with pain requires significant and sustained effort, and this makes us drained.

About 80% of us are lucky enough to not know what it’s wish to be in pain, day in and day trip, for months or years. But take a moment to assume what it’s like.

Imagine having to pay attention hard, gather energy, and use distraction techniques to finish on a regular basis activities, let alone work, caregiving, or other responsibilities.

Whenever you’re feeling pain, you’re faced with a selection of whether and tips on how to act. Continually making that selection requires thought, effort, and strategy.

Mentioning your pain or explaining its impact on every moment, task, or activity is also tiring and difficult to speak when nobody else sees or feels your pain. For those listening, it could grow to be tedious, exhausting, or distressing.

No wonder the pain is exhausting

In chronic pain, it’s not only the pain system that’s on alert. Increased inflammation throughout the body (immune system on alert), impaired production of the hormone cortisol (endocrine system on alert), and stiff and cautious movements (motor system on alert) are also hand in hand with chronic pain.

Each of those contributes to fatigue and exhaustion. So learning to administer and resolve chronic pain often involves learning tips on how to best manage the overactivation of those systems.

Losing sleep is also factor each in fatigue and pain. Pain causes sleep disruption, and sleep loss contributes to pain.

In other words, chronic pain is rarely “just” pain. It’s no wonder that long-term pain can grow to be overwhelming and debilitating.

What actually works?

People who are suffering from chronic pain include: stigmatized, rejected AND misunderstoodwhich may result in them not getting the care they need. Ongoing pain can prevent people from working, limit their social contacts and affect their relationships. This can result in a downward spiral of social, personal and economic drawback.

That’s why we want higher access to evidence-based care and high-quality education for individuals with chronic pain.

There is excellent news, nevertheless. Modern chronic pain care, which is based on first gaining a contemporary understanding of the biology underlying chronic pain, it helps.

The key appears to be recognizing and accepting that a hypersensitive pain system plays a key role in chronic pain. This makes a fast fix highly unlikely, but a program of gradual change—perhaps over months and even years—holds promise.

Understanding how pain works, how chronic pain becomes overprotective, how our brain and body adapt to training, after which learning recent skills and techniques to steadily rewire each the brain and body offers hope based on science; there is a powerful supporting evidence With clinical trials.

Any support is helpful

The best treatments for chronic pain require effort, patience, persistence, courage, and infrequently a very good coach. All of this is a fairly overwhelming proposition for somebody who is already exhausted.

So in the event you are among the many 80% of the population that doesn’t suffer from chronic pain, take into consideration what is needed and support your colleague, friend, partner, child or parent on this journey.