Could you imagine your life without a toilet? Strange as it may sound, that’s the reality for millions of people in our planet. That’s why November 19 is according to the UN World Toilet Day.
Because the lack of access to a safe toilet is a much more serious issue than you might have thought. World Toilet Day has a very clear objective: to draw attention towards a global problem that we seldom talk about.
The figures given by the UN are alarming. 62% of the world population lacks a safe sanitation system. 4,5000 million people don’t have a safe toilet at home. And 892 million still practice open air defecation.
Having no access to a toilet is in fact no joke. They are essential to capture and treat human feces and avoid diseases. Toilets, as the UN puts it, save lives. Because according to data from the WHO and Unicef, around 1,800 million people worldwide drink everyday from water polluted with feces.
The lack of collection and treatment of human feces is a serious health problem and a threat to the environment. For this reason, the UN has launched the campaign “When nature calls, take action”. The UN’s objective is part of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. By then, everyone should have access to safe sanitation and open air defecation will not be practiced anymore.
Toilet access isn’t the only issue concerning water that the UN is worried about. 3 out of 10 people don’t have access to clean drinking water. And water scarcity affects 40% (and growing) of the world’s population. What’s more, according to the Unicef, around 1,000 children die daily due to intestinal diseases related to lack of hygiene.
With World Toilet Day, the UN aims to raise funds so that the situation of many people improves step by step. You can read all the information about the different agencies and organizations inside the UN to which you can make a donation by clicking here.
