Top facts
The global sanitation crisis is reflected in the following facts, according to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
- Around 60% of the global population – 4.5 billion people – either have no toilet at home or one that doesn’t safely manage excreta.
- 862 million people worldwide still practise open defecation – this means human faeces, on a massive scale, is not being captured or treated.
- 1.8 billion people use an unimproved source of drinking water with no protection against contamination from faeces.
- One third of schools worldwide do not provide any toilet facilities – a particular problem for girls during menstruation.
- 900 million schoolchildren across the world have no handwashing facilities – a critical barrier in the spread of deadly diseases.
- Globally, 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.
http://www.un.org/en/events/toiletday/
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