Bhutan joined the world to observe the World Toilet Day in Thimphu, today. The day was observed to create awareness on sanitation, hygiene and water supply.
About 4.2 percent of people from the East and 0.8 percent of urban dwellers still defecates in the open, states the Bhutan Multiple Indicator Survey, 2010.
Bhutan is trying to raise the percentage of people, with access to improved sanitation, from 54 percent to 80 percent within the 11th Five Year Plan.
The country’s Annual Health Bulletin, 2012, shows about 18,500 children, aged five and under were brought to the health facilities, suffering from diarrhoea.
Globally, 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 675 million in South Asia according to the United Nations.
Diarrhoea, though easily preventable, is still a major killer, taking lives of more than 1.5 million children, all of them less than aged five in developing countries.
