Cooperazione & Relazioni internazionali
World Toilet Day
Raising awareness on global sanitation.
19 November is World Toilet Day. A day to celebrate the humble toilet – on this very day in 1792 the flushable toilet we all know today was patented. But most of all it is an opportunity for civil society to raise awareness of global sanitation issues.
According to UNICEF more than 2.6 billion people – that is to say 40% of the world’s population – lacks access to basic sanitation. This means no clean water and no toilet. According to a Channel 4 report, a child dies every 15 seconds in Africa from illnesses caused by unsafe water. While anti poverty NGO Tear Fund, highlights that on current trends the millennium goal target to halve the proportion of people without access to sanitation, which are set for 2015, will not be achieved in Sub-Saharan Africa until 2108. As a result, disease and death spread uncontrolled.
World toilet day dates back to 2001 when 17 toilet associations around the world joined forces to demand action on sanitation. Seven years later this international campaigning day has become a global platform for civil society to promote clean toilets as a basic human right and need.
Interested in taking action? Here is how:
1) Join the cause on Facebook: Toilets for the Poor
2) Blog about the cause on November 19th
3) Promote the day by changing your Facebook status to: Today is world toilet day
4) Share this article with your friends and colleagues
To find out more:
Here who is taking action:
Find out about social innovation and toilets:
