Lack of proper toilets can be fatal

[buckthesystem]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4284622a4560.html

Lack of proper toilet facilities and sanitation kills almost two million people a year, most of them children, the World Toilet Association said at its first meeting.

"It is regrettable that the matter of defecation is not given as much attention as food or housing," Sim Jae-duck, the association's South Korean head, told the meeting at its recently opened lavatory-shaped headquarters south of Seoul.

Sim, a lawmaker nicknamed "Mr Toilet", said some 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to proper toilet facilities, with potentially fatal consequences.

About 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases that are mainly blamed on inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, the World Health Organisation's regional director for the Western Pacific, Shigeru Omi, told the meeting.

The majority of these deaths occur in Asia and 90 per cent of the fatalities are children under the age of five, he added.

"Just imagine the number of children whose lives could be saved through simple low-cost interventions in sanitation and hygiene," Omi told the meeting.

The United Nations has declared 2008 the "Year of Sanitation" and is calling for a renewed effort to improve sanitation and hygiene facilities, especially in developing countries.

Several charities also marked World Toilet Day on Monday by launching international campaigns for more hygiene awareness and investments in toilet facilities.

The Seoul meeting, which brought together public health officials from around the world and UN agencies, aims to raise funds for sanitation in developing countries.

"The funding needed is not overwhelmingly large, but the return is immense," said Vanessa Tobin of UN children's agency Unicef. "Political support is extremely important. Advocacy for this issue is a high priority."

According to the United Nations, spending $US10 billion ($NZ13.50 billion) a year could halve the proportion of people without basic toilet facilities by 2015, and Tobin said this investment would net an estimated $US84 billion in savings from improved public health and better living conditions.

In some cultures, the solution requires very little water, as is the case in sub-Saharan Africa where ash on top of a pit is often all that is needed, she said.

"It is very important to remember most people who don't have access are poor people living in rural areas," Tobin added.

[Hunterpoet]

My comment is meant to support the validity of what is proposed in the above article.

After recieveing the normal amount of injections in boot camp, we all were given additional innoculations prior to being deployed into vietnam. All of us hated the injection guantlet

Some years later my grief over having had to run the gaunlet was increased after reading the results of a study conducted by the Army's mecical department, that concluded that the field hygiene measures taught to soldiers and marines was far more effective at preventing the spread of disease than the vaccines.

Proper use and care of outhouses, slit trenches, drinking water guidelines and personal hygiene were all factors included in the study.

[nebula]

Well, the house sure is "weird and wacky," but the concern is very serious.

Good show!