[cogitator]

Yes, it is a problem. In fact, it's probably also the main problem affecting the health of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean: untreated sewage entering the ocean.

And: cleaning up water might do more to reduce fatal disease overall than dumping millions of dollars on the AIDS crisis in Africa. Not that AIDS doesn't need money, but cholera and dysentery kill, too: and they kill more children.

[camle]

I can honestly state with no equivocation that this story is full of st!t:-)

sorry, couldn't resist saying such a crappy thing...

[Conspiracy Guy]

How to handle this problem in the long run is a "crap shoot" at best.

[tje]

This is pretty interesting actually. When you add in the current health scare going on. I wonder if these places with poor sanitation are the breeding ground for this super germs.

Londons sewer system (if it could have been called that) played a big role in the bubonic plague that killed so many people....

[grobdriver]

In fact, it's probably also the main problem affecting the health of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean: untreated sewage entering the ocean.

probably, eh?
I wonder how much human feces it tales to amount to that of all the creatures in the ocean.
"Health of the coral reefs" indeed.

[primeval patriot]

Another 2.8 billion people use pit latrines, but "there is a huge fraction of the planet -- 2.4 billion people -- that has no place to go and sh*t,"

What's stopping the other 2.4 billion from picking up a shovel and digging a latrine?

[Diddle E. Squat]

We are entrenched in a global sanitation crisis

How is something that has been taking place since the beginning of human existance(pooping in the woods/fields) a 'crisis'?

[RichInOC]

"...there is a huge fraction of the planet -- 2.4 billion people -- that has no place to go and sh*t..."

Nonsense. When you gotta go, you gotta go, and when you gotta go badly enough, you'll find a place, whether it's sanitary or not. The problem's not that two and a half billion have no place to sh*t, it's that they have no good place to sh*t.