More people have access to cellphones than toilets

SALT LAKE CITY — A recent study released by the United Nations found that while most of the world has access to cellphones, only about 60 percent has access to working toilets.

Of the world's estimated 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to mobile phones, the study claimed. Only 4.5 billion people have access to a working toilet, leaving 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation, including a staggering 1.1 billion people who are forced to defecate in the open.

"Let's face it — this is a problem that people don't like to talk about," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in a statement. "But it goes to the heart of ensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental human dignity for billions of people."

In a different study by the United Nations University, results showed that in of India's 1.2 billion population, only 366 million people, or a third of the population, had access to proper sanitation in 2008. Meanwhile, more than 563 million people had a mobile phone.

"It's a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, (people) cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, UN University director, in an interview with the Telegraph.

One in four people in developing countries practice open defecation, according to a joint publication from the World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Those poor community sanitary conditions are a major cause of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases among children. On top of that, diarrhea is a leading cause of child deaths in countries without access to clean or hygienic facilities.

The statement cites open defecation as an area that, if improved, could drastically increase the well-being of children across the world.

"We can reduce cases of diarrhea in children under five by a third simply by expanding the access of communities to sanitation and eliminating open defecation," Martin Mogwanja, deputy executive director of UNICEF, said in the UN statement about the study. He added that ending open defecation could result in a 36 percent reduction of diarrhea, preventing about 750,000 child deaths a year.

While progress has been made in the past few years, the UN is continuing its effort to accomplish eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, which includes a goal to halve the proportion of people without access to sanitation. Other MDGs include halting the spread of HIV/Aids providing primary education to everyone.

Mogwanja experienced firsthand the impact of improved access to toilets and latrines during a humanitarian effort in Pakistan. The project focused on flood-affected areas, according to the UN statement, and in less than two years millions of people gained access to toilets . That same community is now open defecation-free.

"But the effort succeeded not by building latrines," he said. "It succeeded by getting people to recognize and to talk about the problem.

Many nonprofit organizations have taken aim at helping the UN meet its MDG. One of effort's big supporters is Bill Gates, who launched "Reinvent the Toilet" in August 2012 and in 2011, he offered researchers $42 million to build hygienic and efficient toilets. Other organizations like Water1st International, the World Toilet Organization and Water.org are working in developing countries across the globe to provide cleaner water, toilets, and health education.