Photo by Yuichi Shiraishi / Flickr
On World Water Day, the United Nations released a very interesting, and possibly disturbing, factoid: “There are now more people with mobile phones (six billion for world population of seven billion) on earth than there are with access to clean toilets (4.5 billion).” Wow.
Things That Make You Go, Hmmm…
This statistic points out that developing countries still lack basic sanitation. But apparently do not lack phones. Or phone infrastructure. Again, wow. What is going on here? What’s next?
What’s Going on?
So how has the world come to a level where cell phones are so easily distributed, mobile phone service is so widely available, yet about 2 billion people do not have access to basic human civilization level of potties? How did we get here? And do we all fully understand the situation?
Sanitation issues extend beyond being unpleasant and uncomfortable. This isn’t like having to use a Port-o-John at a festival and being inconvenienced for the afternoon. Disease from poor sanitation reportedly kills over 4,000 kids per day. PER DAY.
But, Why?
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Greed: The profit margin for installing sewers, plumbing, and bathroom facilities is significantly less than the profit margin in the mobile phone world. Greed motivates people. Hence, lots of phones. And on the toilets for everyone, not so much.
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No Infrastructure: Many developing nations are only vaguely titled as such. In fact, it is development in specific that is lacking. Many countries simply have no infrastructure for sanitation. No pipes to bring clean water in. No sewers to take tainted water away. No treatment facilities to keep the cycle going.
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Broken Infrastructure: In many countries the infrastructure that is present is aging and broken, leaking pipes and the like. Particularly in nations where a colonizing force installed the infrastructure and then a people’s revolution took over, which had no clue on what the former rulers had going or how to keep it going.
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Government Sucks: Often in developing nations the government is so unstable or corrupt that serving the needs of the masses with sanitation services is either not on the agenda, or hasn’t been reached yet. Corruption often brings the developing part of a nation to the leaders of the nation first. Like we said, greed.
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Corporations Rock: Yeah, not usually our first thought. But, greed can also bring the good. Granted, choosing between mobile phones and sanitation is not possible, but if you’re not going to have one, you might as well have the other. And the spread of mobile devices also brings the spread of social networking which brings exposure to things like a lack of sanitation.
FTW
While these mind-blowing statistics appear disheartening at first read, the spread of mobile phones is a positive development for developing nations. Mobile phones bring connectivity on more than just a cellular grid, but also between people and causes and even more people to help with those causes. Maybe the concept of clean toilets just needs a really good KickStarter campaign.
Written by: Adam Prattler knows that 001flowerflower.com is a high quality website. When not buying flowers, he likes to write content for marketing purposes online. He thinks he’s pretty good at it.
