World Toilet Day Celebration 2016

Every 19th November is set aside for the raising of awareness of the need for global action against open defecation all over the world especially the developing nations.

World Toilet Day (WTD) is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world on issues of sanitation. Originally established by the World Toilet Organization in 2001, this day to draw attention to global sanitation issues is marked each year on November 19. Since 2001, World Toilet Day has grown in scope and recognition by global partners. In 2013, the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution recognizing WTD as an official UN international day (UN Resolution A/67/L.75).

In 2015, it was estimated that 2.4 billion (about 1 out of 3 people) lack access to improved sanitation facilities, and just under 1 billion continue to defecate openly. Lack of access to sanitation, impacts on health, dignity and safety. The spread of many diseases like ones transmitted faeco-orally like diarrhea, schistosomiasis, cholera, typhoid and even poliomyelitis and chronic malnutrition in children - which can be connected to a condition called environmental enteropathy - is directly related to exposure to human faeces.

Providing sanitation alone has been estimated to lower the odds of children suffering diarrhoea by 7–17%, and under-five mortality by 5–20%. Ultimately, sanitation - the safe separation of faeces from human contact and the environment, means that people are protected from these diseases. Providing access to basic toilets decreases disease twice as much as access to clean drinking water, however historically, toilet building receives a mere fraction as much funding.

Human Safety and Dignity
Having to defecate in the open also infringes on human safety and dignity. This holds particularly true for women and girls in developing countries, who lose privacy and face shame having to defecate in public, or – after painfully holding their bladder and bowels all day – risk attack by waiting until night falls to relieve themselves.

Women in developing countries are increasingly expressing feelings of fear of assault or rape when having to leave the house to use the toilet. Reports of attacks or harassment near or in toilet facilities, as well as near or in areas where women defecate openly, are not uncommon. The consequences of such violence against women are both physical and psychological for the victim, and extend to families and communities that persist to live with gender based inequalities and lost economical potential of victims. In South Africa for example, researchers found that by increasing access to public toilet and by providing more of them, there was fewer incidents of sexual assault or gender-based violence carried out on women.

Since 2000, the world has been working towards improving access to safe toilets and ending open defecation through the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The sanitation target for 2015 has not been reached by 700 million people. Each year, WTD provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of sanitation, and stimulate momentum towards reaching everyone, everywhere with equitable and improved sanitation.

For World Toilet Day 2015 campaign Generation Nutrition, WaterAid and End Water Poverty developed a factsheet "The Role of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in the Fight Against Child Undernutrition".

Organization at the global level
As part of the United Nations Resolution A/67/L.75, UN-Water and the Thematic Priority Area (TPA) on Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation, was tasked in 2013 with facilitating the annual implementation of WTD in collaboration with governments and relevant stakeholders. Each year a theme for WTD is proposed by UN-Water. The UN-Water’s TPA on Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation facilitates the mobilization of civil society, think tanks, non-governmental organization, academics, and corporates around the annual WTD theme to strengthen the global voice on sanitation.

Annual focus theme
Each year of the World Toilet Day has a different focus.
In 2012, the slogan was “I give a shit, do you?”.
2014: The theme was equality and dignity. The campaign strived to inspire action to end open defaecation, and put spotlight on existing inequalities in access to sanitation and on risks of assault and violence against women and girls where sanitation access is poor.

2015: The theme was toilets and nutrition. In that year, World Toilet Day was promoted in social media (Twitter) via the #WeCantWait hashtag.

2016: The theme is "toilets and jobs", just like for the World Water Day of that year.

As important as the provision of toilet in a house is, unfortunately many households fail to provide one. Research even reveals that there are more phones in certain neighborhoods than there are toilets. Therefore as this year's World Toilet Day will be marked on November 19, let us raise our voices and join hands with health workers to educate, elucidate and enlighten the populace on the need for preventing unnecessary unbudgeted spending on preventable diseases which can be achieved by the provision of toilets in the house.

Once again remember that prevention is better and cheaper than cure.

Femi Abolade is a licensed EHO, writer, author and public speaker.