Money

©  2009  Rose George

Forbes reports that “Laos is losing nearly $200 million a year, or 5.6 percent of its gross domestic product, due to poor sanitation and the resulting disease outbreaks that come from dirty water and a lack of toilets, the World Bank said Thursday.” The estimable economist Guy Hutton, who continues to do groundbreaking work around sanitation, told the paper that “”Government officials don’t necessarily react to a statement that we lose 6,000 people a year to sanitation. What we tried to do was put this into economic terms especially to non-health ministries where monetary figures say more.” Bravo.