International Labour Organization
High-income countries often take the wastewater management process for granted. Yet only 58 per cent of the world’s domestic wastewater is safely treated, with significant variation across regions. For World Toilet Day, we delve into the data to gain a better understanding of employment in the water collection, treatment and supply and sewerage industries in different country contexts.
This blog focuses on workers in the water collection, treatment and supply and sewerage industries based on the International Standard Classification of Industries 4 (ISIC) divisions 36 (water collection, treatment and supply) and 37 (sewerage). These workers constitute only a subset of the global sanitation workforce, as there are indeed a far larger number of cleaning and sanitation workers employed across other industries. Cleaning and sanitation workers, whose critical role was further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, was identified as a key occupational group in the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook 2023: The value of essential work. While the latter report discussed various aspects related to decent work for these occupational groups, the emphasis here is on the human resources involved in wastewater treatment and sewerage activities across the world, and what employment patterns reveal about the structure of these industries and implications for these countries’ potential to meet SDG 6.3.1 targets.
Unfortunately, the number of countries with available labour force survey data for these industries, and for sewerage activities in particular, is quite limited. This is partly because workers in the water collection, treatment and supply and sewerage industries represent a very small share of the workforce, with less than one per cent in all but one country with available data. Additionally, we find that while employment growth rates have been positive in recent years for most countries (in 31 out of 40 countries with two available non-consecutive data points between 2003 and 2022) for water collection, treatment and supply, there has been a decline in employment in several countries for the sewerage industry (specifically, in 8 out of the 14 countries). This decline may be attributable to restructuring of the industries, and a shift to less labour-intensive processes.
Also noteworthy is the correlation between the employment share in water collection, treatment and supply and sewerage industries and the proportion of safely treated domestic wastewater flows (SDG indicator 6.3.1) across country income groups. That is, in upper-middle- and high-income countries, where these industries are more capital-intensive, a lower employment share in these industries is associated with a higher proportion of safely treated domestic wastewater flows, while the opposite is true, on average, in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where labour intensity is higher and labour productivity is lower.
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