Aug 21 - With 2.5 billion people around the world living without a toilet, sanitation experts are pushing to get this most basic need onto the political agenda.

Better sanitation improves human health, promotes economic and social development and also helps the environment.

These are the arguments development professionals are using to try to persuade governments and businesses to provide decent sanitation facilities for the 40 percent of the world's population who lack them.

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports.

SOUNDBITE: Jon Lane, Executive Director with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

AlertNet news is provided by