(KAMPALA, Uganda) — Poor countries around the world are facing a dangerous shortage of toilets that puts millions of live at risk, according to campaigners marking World Toilet Day by urging governments and businesses to invest more in sanitation.
The toilet crisis is most severe in parts of Africa and Asia facing extreme poverty and seeing a population boom.
One in five primary schools and one in eight secondary schools globally do not have any toilets, the group WaterAid said in a new report to mark the U.N.-designated toilet day, observed on Monday, as part of efforts to end the global sanitation crisis.
An estimated 4.5 billion people across the world lack access to proper sanitation, said the report. Some 2.5 billion among them do not have adequate toilets, according to U.N. figures. The lack of toilets forces many to defecate in the open — in the streets, in the bushes and by rivers and other water sources.
Among the development goals set by the U.N. in 2015 is a target to en..