Rankings: Top Countries That Lack Toilets, Citizens Do ‘Kadingo’ In Bushes

By Frank Kamuntu

The UNEP and WHO had a millennium target of providing toilets to 77% of the world’s population by 1990, and so far only 68% of the world population has access to toilets. According to the joint report from UNEP and WHO, more than 2.4 billion individuals, which is equivalent to a third of the world population, cannot access a hygienic toilet. These individuals relieve themselves in poor unhygienic places with no privacy, like in rivers or in the bush, which has contributed to the spread of different communicable diseases.

The United Nations describes an improved sanitation facility as a place which can hygienically separate the waste from people, and compost toilets qualify as clean facilities. Some of the nations with fewer sanitation facilities per capita include:

South Sudan

With a population of over 12.23 million people, only 6.7% of the population, which is more than 819,000 people, can access decent toilets. Sudan has fewer hygienic and safe toilets per individual than any other country in the world. The main cause of this problem is the civil war which started in 2013 after President Salva Kiir Mayardit accused his previous deputy of attempting a coup d’etat. The civil war caused widespread destruction and displacement of many people from their homes to refugee camps, where sanitation is poor. Although a peace agreement was signed in August 2015, most of the citizens were left poor without shelter and decent toilets.

Niger

According to WHO, more than 10.9% of the population in Niger can access an clean facility, meaning that only one out of five individuals have access to a toilet. About eighteen million people in Niger cannot access clean toilets. The percentage increased from 84% of the population who cannot access an improved toilet in 1990 to 89.1% in 2017.

Togo

In Togo, only 11.6% of the over 7.6 million people living in the country have clean toilets in their homes. According to WHO, more than 6.7 million citizens relieve themselves in the open, implying that six in every seven people do not have a hygienic toilet in their homes. Togo is one of the smallest states in Africa and the majority of the population lives in slums in urban areas where sanitation is poor. According to UNICEF, about 81.25% of the population in Togo lives below the poverty line, surviving on less than $2 a day.

Madagascar

Madagascar is the fourth country with the least number of toilets per capita in the world. With a population, of over 24.89 million, only 12% of the population can access clean toilets. Approximately 21.9 million Madagascans do not have decent toilets, but the introduction of waterless and odorless latrines in the country in 2011, by Virginia Gardiner, helped reduce this number by providing latrines to the population.

In Ghana, only 4.2 million individuals (which represent 14.9% of the population) have latrines. Over 24 million Ghanaians relieve themselves in the rivers and bushes, and according to UNICEF three out of every five schools in Ghana do not have pit latrines, and this has led to many schools in the rural areas closing due to an outbreak of various communicable diseases including Cholera and diarrhoea.

Liberia

Despite their progress in reviving their economy from the ravages of civil wars in 2003, Liberia remains among the poorest nations in the world, and this is reflected in poor sanitation and lack of toilets in the country. Statistics show that over 3.83 million Liberians lack a decent latrine and most of them relieve themselves outside. In Liberia, one in twenty-five can access a toilet. According to the sanitation sector of Liberia, the entire country had 19,690 toilets in 2008, and although the number has increased, a majority of the citizens lack toilets.