Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene November - December 2016 vol.11 No.6 | Page 32

Sanitation

World Toilet Day, 19 November

What is World Toilet Day?

W

orld Toilet Day is a day to raise awareness and
inspire action to tackle the global sanitation
crisis – a topic often neglected and shrouded in
taboos. Today, 2.4 billion people are struggling to stay well,
keep their children alive and work their way to a better
future – all for the want of a toilet.

Investing in good toilets in workplaces and schools so that
women and girls have clean, separate facilities to maintain
their dignity, and to manage menstruation or pregnancy
safely, can boost what is often referred to as the ‘girl
effect’: maximizing the involvement of half the population
in society.

The Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2015,
include a target to ensure everyone everywhere has
access to toilets by 2030. This makes sanitation a global
development priority.

The top line facts:

In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly officially
designated November 19 as World Toilet Day. World Toilet
Day is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with
governments and partners.

The theme in 2016: Toilets and jobs
This year’s theme focuses on how sanitation, or the lack of
it, can impact on livelihoods. Toilets play a crucial role in
creating a strong economy, as well as improving health and
protecting people’s safety and dignity, particularly women’s
and girls’.
A lack of toilets at work and at home has severe impacts
upon businesses through problems in the workforce: poor
health, absenteeism, attrition, reduced concentration,
exhaustion, and decreased productivity. Loss of
productivity due to illnesses caused by lack of sanitation
and poor hygiene practices is estimated to cost many
countries up to 5% of GDP.

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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2016

• 2.4 billion people live without improved sanitation
(World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF
2015).
• One in ten people has no choice but to defecate in
the open (WHO/UNICEF 2015).
• Diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and unsafe
water kills 315,000 children every year (WASHwatch 2016).
• Disease transmission at work, mostly caused by
poor sanitation and hygiene practices, causes
17% of all workplace deaths (International Labour
Organization (ILO) 2003).
• Loss of productivity due to illnesses caused by lack
of sanitation and poor hygiene practices is
estimated to cost many countries up to 5% of GDP
(Hutton 2012).