Filthy toilets a blight on Asian prosperity
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SINGAPORE — Fast-growing Asian economies may be flush with money but filthy toilets remain a blight across the region despite rising standards of living, with dire effects on poverty reduction and public health.
Social activists say dismal sanitation facilities are causing preventable diseases in poor communities where people would readily spend money on a mobile phone — but not on a latrine.
“I think it’s very prevalent,” said Jack Sim, a Singaporean businessman who founded the sanitation advocacy group World Toilet Organization. “The handphone is the competitor of the toilet.”
Asia has led the rebound from the 2008-2009 global recession and major institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are predicting strong economic growth in the years ahead..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com3.html
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