Poor Sanitation Is Costing The World $260 Billion Every Year [Infographic]

The World Bank is an international organization dedicated to eliminating poverty. It should be no surprise then that they've formed a partnership organization, the Water and Sanitation Program, to alleviate one of the biggest issues for the poor, a lack of sanitation.

While sanitation might sound trivial compared to other issues like food scarcity or violence, the World Bank infographic below illustrates just how devastating poor sanitation is for different countries.

A few choice facts from the graph:

• Poor sanitation costs the world US$260 billion a year
• Diarrhea, attributed to poor water and sanitation, causes 1.4 million preventable child deaths per year
• Improved sanitation has a rate of return of more than 5x for every dollar invested (that's due to higher tourism, greater land value, improved safety, and cleaner water)

The next time you complain about Porta Potties at a summer music festival, remember how much better that is than what fifteen percent of the world population experiences on a daily basis.