On World Toilet Day, 1 billion people have none - UN

LONDON -- 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 (reut.rs/20WNAs2).

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 U.N. 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.

"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.

source: interaksyon.com

Bill Gates wants to 'Reinvent the Toilet'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates on Tuesday launched a search for a new toilet better suited to developing countries.

The charitable foundation founded by Gates and his wife kicked off a "Reinvent the Toilet Fair" in Seattle and awarded prizes for promising innovations.

"Toilets are extremely important for public health and, when you think of it, even human dignity," Gates said in a statement at thegatesnotes.com.

"The flush toilets we use in the wealthy world are irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40 percent of the global population, because they often don't have access to water, and sewers, electricity, and sewage treatment systems."

The Toilet Fair was described as a swirl of about 200 inventors, designers, investors, partners and others passionate about creating safe, effective, and inexpensive waste management systems.

Universities from Britain, Canada, and the United States were awarded prizes in a competition launched a year ago challenging inventors to come up with a better toilet.

First place went to the California Institute of Technology for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen gas and electricity.

Loughborough University came in second for a toilet that transforms waste into biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water.

Third place went to the University of Toronto for a toilet that sanitizes human waste and recovers minerals and water.

"Four in 10 people worldwide don't have a safe way to poop," the Gates Foundation said in a message beneath a Reinvent the Toilet video at its gatesfoundation.org website.

Approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide don't have access to safe sanitation systems for handling the basic and vital need to dispose of bodily waste, according to Gates.

"Beyond a question of human dignity, this lack of access also endangers people's lives, creates an economic and a health burden for poor communities, and hurts the environment," Gates said.

Food or water tainted with fecal matter causes intestinal diseases that kill 1.5 million children annually -- a figure higher than deaths from AIDS and malaria combined, according to Gates.

"Inventing new toilets is one of the most important things we can do to reduce child deaths and disease and improve people's lives," Gates said.

"It is also something that can help wealthier countries conserve fresh water for other important purposes besides flushing."

source: interaksyon.com