I found these facts in a recent edition of World Ark Magazine which is published by Heifer International...
"Toilets come in many varieties - flush, composting, squat, latrine. While most would consider it merely a convenience, a toilet is a luxury in many parts of the world. (It is called a throne, after all!)
-- 40% of the worlds population does not have access to a toilet. That's 2.6 billion people.
-- half of the hospital beds in sub-Saharan Africa are occupied by people afflicted with fecal-borne diseases.
-- 12% of the total health budget in sub-Saharan Africa is used to treat preventable infectious diarrhea.
-- November 19 is designated at World Toilet Day.
-- 2500 is the number of times the average person uses the toilet each year, about 6 to 8 times a day. Each flush uses 2 to 7 gallons of water.
The above picture is from our visit to Union Victoria, Guatemala. It is the latrine that the family had who we stayed with. The one side is open to the hill side... the latrine was the bottom part of a toilet with no seat over a hole in the ground. Some people just had a hole in the ground and a pole nearby to hold onto while you squatted to do your business. In all of Guatemala, you do not flush the toilet paper you use... it is put in a trash can next to the toilet... even if there is a flushable toilet!
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