A speech by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation.
Let me go straight to the point. An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s population lives without one of the basic amenities of modern life: a toilet.
This means that 2.6 billion people are forced to relieve themselves in open spaces – in fields, forests, bushes, water bodies, or a patch of mud. This is a degrading way of life, and this is a form of environmental degradation with direct and dramatic consequences for health.
Lack of sanitation breeds the so-called diseases of filth. These are diseases caused by the faecal contamination of food, water, or soil, or spread by flies that feed on filth.
Sanitation Updates 