Did you know that the small but mighty toilet – often overlooked or shrouded in taboo – is fundamental to the health of people and the planet?
How do toilets, connected to effective sanitation systems, capture and dispose of human waste, and protect communities from the spread of disease and the environment against contamination?
Why are 3.5 billion people still living without safely managed sanitation services?
How does this ongoing sanitation crisis undermine efforts on all major global issues?
Explore sanitation and water issues here:
- State of the World’s Sanitation Report
- The Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
- UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2023
- WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene
- UN World Water Development Report 2023
- UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2022 Report
- UN-Water Water Facts
- WHO media factsheet on sanitation
- Call to action on climate-resilient sanitation
What is the Water Action Agenda?
With just seven years left, the world has to work, on average, five times faster to meet the sanitation target of SDG 6 – safe toilets and water for all by 2030 – on time.
The Water Action Agenda, announced at the UN 2023 Water Conference in March, is a collection of existing and new commitments from governments, companies, organizations, institutions and coalitions to make rapid change on sanitation and water.
Accountability is key to acceleration. What we need now is for everyone to rapidly deliver on their promises.
WHAT SANITATION ACTION IS HAPPENING WHERE YOU LIVE?
What is your government doing to ensure more people have access to safe toilets? What action is being taken by your local water and sanitation service providers? What are companies in your country doing to improve sanitation?
Check out the Water Action Agenda to see what’s being promised where you live.
Post on social media – #WorldToiletDay – to share what you find or what you want to see.
WHAT DOES FASTER ACTION LOOK LIKE?
The SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2023 is a blueprint for accelerating progress on SDG 6 and other internationally agreed water and sanitation related goals and targets.
Following the UN 2023 Water Conference – the first of its kind in nearly 50 years – this report makes policy recommendations based on the Water Action Agenda, the collection of voluntary commitments from governments and other actors to accelerating progress on sanitation and water.
STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), AquaFed – the International Federation of Private Water Operators, and the World Youth Parliament for Water for World Water Day; and, by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for World Toilet Day.
The Task Force consists of the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), CDP Worldwide, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Green Climate Fund, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Human Right 2 Water, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Association forHydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), International Labour Organization (ILO), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Public Services International (PSI), Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), Toilet Board Coalition, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Global Compact, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).