IT Based Innovation in Rural and Urban WSS : Sanitation Hackathon, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2012
The need for innovative solutions to the chronic lack of sanitation worldwide is immense. Of those people who lack access to improved sanitation. 1.1 billion have no facilities at all and defecate in the open. These sanitation shortages account for...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/05/19677866/based-innovation-rural-urban-wss-sanitation-hackathon http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18954 |
| Summary: | The need for innovative solutions to the
chronic lack of sanitation worldwide is immense. Of those
people who lack access to improved sanitation. 1.1 billion
have no facilities at all and defecate in the open. These
sanitation shortages account for thousands of deaths daily,
especially among children. Additionally, poor sanitation
costs billions of dollars in economic losses annually, as
high as 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP in some
countries. 'That's billions of dollars that could
educate poor children or help build infrastructure - like
schools and roads,' said World Bank Group President Jim
Yong Kim. Conversely, more than 6 billion people worldwide
have access to a mobile phone, including in rural and urban
areas in developing countries. The surge in mobile phones in
Africa, some 94 percent of urban Africans, for example, are
near a GSM signal, is transforming the way people complete
daily tasks, from knowing when to sell farm commodities, to
finding easier ways to pay bills or send money to family and
friends. With ever increasing mobile penetration and falling
prices of smart phones, mobile applications provide a
platform to address myriad critical issues and an
opportunity to solve problems in the developing world. |
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