More people world-wide own a mobile phone than have access to toilets or latrines, United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson revealed as part of what the global governing body has deemed "a call for urgent action to end the crisis of 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation."
According to statistics released by the UN, six billion of the world's seven billion people have mobile phones, but only 4.5 billion can get to clean restroom facilities when they need them. The remaining 2.5 billion most of them live in rural areas, do not have proper sanitation.
Furthermore, according to a report, more than one billion people are forced to defecate out in the open. That practice is prevalent in countries with the highest rate of fatalities amongst children under the age of five, as well as elevated malnutrition and poverty rates and other significant health issues.
"While that might seem like an apples to oranges comparison, the contrast is interesting and somewhat alarming," says another report, adding that "in Indonesia, for example, it's pretty normal to see someone in a metal roofed shack without a bathroom checking Facebook on a phone. And though many countries' governments aren't responding to basic needs in terms of infrastructure, tech companies will damn well get phones in people's hands."
Daily Mail quoted the UN Deputy Secretary-General as saying 22 countries currently account for more than four-fifths of all open defecation world-wide. A UN official said that those countries were Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Niger, Sudan and South Sudan. Furthermore, India alone accounted for 60 percent of the number of people engaged in the practice. India is home to nearly 900 million mobile phones, but over 600 million do not have access to proper sanitation, the Daily Mail reported.
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