Providing Toilets, Safe Water Is Top Route To Reducing World Poverty

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2008) — Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released by the United Nations University. "Water problems, caused largely by an appalling absence of adequate toilets in many places, contribute tremendously to some of the world's most punishing problems, foremost among them the inter-related afflictions of poor health and chronic poverty," says Zafar Adeel, Director of the UN University's Canadian-based International Network on Water, Environment and Health.