A new United Nations study has found that more people around the world have access to a cellphone than to a working toilet.
联合国最新的一项调查研究显示，全球范围内拥有手机的人要比“拥有厕所”的人多。

The study’s numbers claim that of the world’s estimated 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion have access to a toilet.
根据该研究的数据显示，目前在全球约70亿人中，有60亿人可以使用手机，而只有大约45亿的人有条件使用厕所。

At a press conference announcing the report, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson announced the organization is launching an effort to halve the number of those without access by the end of 2015.
联合国副秘书长扬·埃利亚松在一次新闻发布会上宣布了这项报告，他表示联合国正在发起一项活动，计划到2015年年底，将没有条件使用厕所的人数减少一半。

“Let’s face it—this is a problem that people do not like to talk about. But it goes to the heart of ensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental human dignity for billions of people,” Eliasson said at the press conference.
埃利亚松在发布会上表示：“我们需要面对这个事实，如厕问题可能是人们不太愿意谈论的问题，但这却是保证人们身体健康、保护清洁环境和十几亿人的基本人类尊严的核心问题。”

In August 2012, the Bill Gates Foundation began its own effort to “reinvent the toilet” as a way to help curb the number of people around the world without access to sanitary waste disposal.
2012年8月，比尔盖茨基金会开始进行“厕所改造计划”活动，希望可以将遏制全球范围内无法进行卫生填埋垃圾处理的人数。

Interestingly, the report states that India alone is responsible for 60 percent of the world’s population that does not use a toilet, an estimated 626 million individuals. Yet, at the same time, there are an estimated 1 billion cellphones in India.
而很有趣的是，该包括显示，印度占到了全球无法使用厕所人数的60%，估计约有6.26亿人；而与此同时，印度国内使用的手机数量估计达10亿部。

Conversely, in the world’s most highly populated country, China, only 14 million people do not have access to a toilet. However, there are also fewer cellphones in China, 986 million, according to the Daily Mail.
中国的情况与之相反。虽然中国是世界上人口最密集的国家，但根据英国《每日邮报》的数据，在中国只有1400万人没条件使用厕所。中国拥有的手机数量约为9.86亿部，少于印度的数量。

Driving the point home, more than 750,000 people die each year from diarrhea and one of its primary causes is from unsanitary conditions created in communities without access to toilets.
还有更多的数据说明这个问题。全球每年有超过75万的人死于痢疾，其中大多是因为没有条件使用厕所，卫生条件无法保证。

And there are other benefits of installing more modern sanitation options that don’t immediately come to mind.
安装现代化的卫生设备还有别的好处，可能我们一时还想不到的益处。

“This can also improve the safety of women and girls, who are often targeted when they are alone outdoors,” said Martin Mogwanja, deputy executive director of the U.N. Children’s Fund. “And providing safe and private toilets may also help girls to stay in school, which we know can increase their future earnings and help break the cycle of poverty.”
联合国儿童基金会的副总干事马丁-莫格万加表示：“这样还能增强妇女儿童的安全，独自在户外活动的妇女儿童通常会是遭遇袭击的对象。提供安全私人的厕所也可以帮助女孩子们待在学校接受更好的教育，这样能够增加她们未来的收入，帮助打破贫穷的恶性循环。”