- The United Nations observes World Toilet Day on November 19 annually. The main aim is to raise public awareness of broader sanitation systems such as wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and hand washing.
- The 2022 campaign ‘Making the invisible visible’ explores how inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes and soil, polluting underground water resources.
- The central message of World Toilet Day 2022 is that safely managed sanitation protects groundwater from human waste pollution.
- Currently, the world is seriously off track to meet the promise of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2: to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030.
This year the theme for World Toilet Day is ‘Making the Invisible Visible’, which focuses on the impact of poor sanitation on groundwater, and how inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes and soil, polluting underground water resources.
- It was on this day in 2001 when Jack Sim, a philanthropist from Singapore founded the World Toilet Organization and declared the day as World Toilet Day.
- The efforts to draw attention to the sanitation crises were given focus by the UN in 2010 when they officially recognised the right to water and sanitation as human rights. In 2013, the Singapore Government and the World Toilet Organization collaborated to create Singapore’s UN resolution – Sanitation for all.
- This resolution urged group efforts to address the global sanitation crisis. Following the adoption of the resolution by 122 nations at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, World Toilet Day was designated as an official UN day.
- The world faces a global sanitation crisis as over 3.6 billion people still live with poor-quality toilets that ruin their health and pollute their environment. Due to inadequate sanitation systems, human waste reaches rivers, lakes, and soil, contaminating the water resources.
- To stop this, everyone must have access to a clean toilet that is connected to a sanitation system that effectively removes and treats human waste.
- Goal 6 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for adequate sanitation, and this day brings an opportunity to call upon governments, institutions, and people to work toward creating adequate sanitation systems for all.