We Now Live in a World Where More People Have Mobile Phones Than Clean Toilets
An Indian daily wage laborer talks on a mobile phone, at a construction site in Bhubaneshwar, India. Biswaranjan Rout/AP
UN reports estimate that 6 billion people on earth have mobile phones.
It is World Water Day, and time for the United Nations to remind us how many people in developing countries still lack basic sanitation.
Surprisingly, the UN reports 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).
That phenomenon is easily visible in Indonesia, for example, where it is common to see people who live in metal roofed shacks without bathrooms surfing Facebook on their smartphones or feature phones. And it shows how, in the developing world, multinationals are often better at responding to peoples’ needs than governments are.