19th November
is world's toilet day. A day earmarked by the United Nations to raise
awareness on the state of sanitation around the world especially in
third world and developing nations. According to statistics released by
the UN, Some 2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to
decent sanitation and over a billion are forced to defecate in the open,
thereby getting exposed to disease and other dangers.
The world
regulatory body insists that 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," U.N.
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 toilets
are found, they fail to match their description in words. The U.N. says
that while there is sufficient fresh water on the planet for everyone,
"bad economics and poor infrastructure" means 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.
"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.
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