UNITED NATIONS, November 20 (Sputnik) – One out of every three women in the world do not have access to safe toilets, which puts them at a higher risk of getting raped, the United Nations has announced.
"Girls are more likely to drop out of school if they don't have access to a safe and clean toilet. Universal access to sanitation has a clear role to play in defending women's safety, dignity and equality. We know that political will at the highest level is critical to address these challenges," UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said Wednesday.
"We have some horrible examples of what can happen to girls and women who go out there in the field and get raped," Eliasson added, stressing that "throughout all life stages, women and girls bear the greatest burdens caused by the lack of toilet access".
According to the United Nations, 25 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa do not use toilets, which is down from 36 percent in 1990. However, in some of the countries the practice has actually become more wide-spread.
Overall, some 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have adequate toilets and among them 1 billion defecate in the open, which puts them in danger of deadly faecal-oral diseases like diarrhoea, according to UN data.
In 2013, more than 340,000 children under five died from diarrhoeal diseases due to a lack of safe water, sanitation and basic hygiene, which, according to the United Nations, is an average of almost 1,000 deaths per day.
