The World Toilet Day

The World Toilet Day is celebrated every 19th of November to commemorate the foundation of the World Toilet Organization, a non-profit group that aims to improve the toilet and sanitation conditions around the world. It has also become a day to increase awareness about the toilet and the people who are deprived from having an access to toilets despite every human’s right to water and sanitation.

This year’s theme was on how women suffer when they lack a proper toilet. In some places in Africa where there is no proper plumbing and clean running water, toilets can be squalid and fetid. They can be holes on the ground made by digging out soil or bamboo huts with holes on the floor suspended over a body of water.

The consequences of not having a toilet for women go beyond health and privacy problems. Many women in Africa get sexually harassed because they are exposed whenever they go to their so-called “toilets.” Teenagers also skip and even drop out from school just because there is no way for them to be comfortable in schools when they have their monthly menstruations.

The celebration of the World Toilet Day has been the center of ridicule and mockery simply because of what its name implies - a day that the world should celebrate toilets. However, what people fail to see is the real advocacy of the organization and why they are trying to inform the world about the toilet. For people in economically advanced countries, a toilet may have a negative implication but for over 2 billion people around the world, it is something that is not available.

Since the World Toilet Organization was established in Singapore in 2001, it has created a lot of ways on how to help solve the toilet and sanitation problems around the world. They have yearly summits where experts all over the world come together to share their knowledge on the current situation and the necessary changes needed for toilets and sanitation.

They also use their website www.unwater.org and other social media sites to make the existence of the World Toilet Day known by more people. “We Can’t Wait!” is the slogan they use for campaigns and it has a double meaning. It can either mean we can’t wait to use the toilet or we can’t wait to have our own toilets.