中國網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 An Indian man urinates in an alley in Mumbai. Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a UN study on how to improve sanitation levels globally. (Agencies) |
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Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a UN study on how to improve sanitation levels globally. India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population. But just 366 million people -- around a third of the population -- had access to proper sanitation in 2008, said the study published by the United Nations University, a UN think-tank. "It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said UN University director Zafar Adeel. Adeel heads the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in the Canadian city of Hamilton, which prepared the report. Worldwide, an estimated 358 billion dollars is needed between now and 2015 to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people with inadequate sanitation from 2000 levels. Proper sanitation "could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve health and help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment," Adeel said. Poor sanitation is a major contributor to water-borne diseases, which in the past three years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to the study. The report gave a rough cost of 300 dollars to build a toilet, including labour, materials and advice. The world could expect a return of up to 34 dollars for every dollar spent on sanitation through improved productivity and reduced poverty and health costs, said Adeel. He said improving sanitation was "an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions." (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
聯(lián)合國一項(xiàng)關(guān)于如何改善全球衛(wèi)生條件的研究顯示，印度的手機(jī)遠(yuǎn)比廁所普及。 據(jù)最近一次的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，印度手機(jī)用戶數(shù)達(dá)到5.6373億，占該國總?cè)丝冢側(cè)丝?2億）數(shù)的近一半。 但據(jù)這份由聯(lián)合國智囊機(jī)構(gòu)聯(lián)合國大學(xué)發(fā)表的研究顯示，2008年該國僅有3.66億人口（約占總?cè)丝诘娜种┠芟硎艿胶细竦男l(wèi)生條件。 聯(lián)合國大學(xué)的扎法?阿迪爾所長說：“在印度這樣一個(gè)日益富裕，近一半人口都擁有手機(jī)的國家，卻有這么多的人用不起廁所這樣的基本生活設(shè)施及其所代表的起碼的尊嚴(yán)，不能不說具有可悲的諷刺意味。” 阿迪爾是聯(lián)合國大學(xué)水資源、環(huán)境和健康研究所的所長，該研究所總部位于加拿大的哈密爾頓，是該研究報(bào)告的主要撰寫機(jī)構(gòu)。 從現(xiàn)在到2015年，全球預(yù)計(jì)需要投資3580億美元才能達(dá)到聯(lián)合國將缺乏合格衛(wèi)生條件的人口數(shù)量減少至2000年一半的千年發(fā)展目標(biāo)。 阿迪爾說，改善衛(wèi)生設(shè)施“是挽救生命，尤其是年輕人的生命，以及改善健康狀況、幫助印度和其他境況相似的國家擺脫貧困的最為有效的投資”。 根據(jù)該研究，惡劣的衛(wèi)生條件是水傳播疾病的一大誘因，通過這一方式傳播的疾病在過去三年內(nèi)共導(dǎo)致了全球約450萬五歲以下的兒童喪生。 據(jù)研究報(bào)告估計(jì)，建造一個(gè)廁所的成本約為300美元，其中包括勞動(dòng)力、材料和建筑指導(dǎo)。 阿迪爾說，全世界在改善衛(wèi)生條件上每花一美元，就能因生產(chǎn)力的提高、貧困和醫(yī)療成本的減少而得到34美元的回報(bào)。 他說，改善衛(wèi)生條件是“一個(gè)歷史性的經(jīng)濟(jì)與人道主義的機(jī)遇”。 相關(guān)閱讀 美國手機(jī)、網(wǎng)絡(luò)使用率落后于北歐國家 比利時(shí)創(chuàng)排隊(duì)上廁所人數(shù)最多世界紀(jì)錄 （中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍） |
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Vocabulary: water-borne disease: 水傳播疾病 |
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