On
World Toilet Day, one billion people have nowhere to go
Send a link to a friend
[November 16, 2015]
LONDON (Reuters) - Some 2.4 billion
people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more
than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and
other dangers, according to the United Nations.
|
Launching its World Toilet Day campaign for Nov 19, the UN said poor
sanitation increases the risk of illness and malnutrition,
especially for children, and called for women and girls in
particular to be offered safe, clean facilities.
"One out of three women around the world lack access to safe
toilets," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "As
a result they face disease, shame and potential violence when they
seek a place to defecate."
Even where there are toilets around the world, some hardly warrant
the name, as illustrated by Reuters in a photo essay from around the
world ( http://reut.rs/1lmUTJh ).
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/16/images/ads/current/gives_you_more_bch_040314.png)
In a Syrian refugee settlement camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, for
example, toilets surrounded by graffiti-covered corrugated sheet sit
right up against flimsy tents. In the Marcory district of Abidjan,
Ivory Coast, a "private" stall is simply built of spare bits of
lumber and metal.
The UN says that while there is sufficient fresh water on the planet
for everyone, "bad economics and poor infrastructure" mean that
every year millions of people - most of them children - die from
diseases linked to poor sanitation, unhygienic living conditions and
lack of clean water supplies.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/ads/current/Symphony_122313.png)
"We have a moral imperative to end open defecation and a duty to
ensure women and girls are not at risk of assault and rape simply
because they lack a sanitation facility," Ban said.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/16/images/ads/current/american_legion_sda_2014.png) |