November 19
World Toilet Day
Since 2013, World Toilet Day has been an official UN international day to inspire solutions to the global hygiene crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without "safely managed sanitation" and around 673 million people practice open defecation. At the same time, Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to "Ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all".
When the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 was released, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that Goal 6 of sustainable development is off track and hindering progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for human rights and achieving peace and security worldwide. The World Toilet Day exists to inform, engage, and inspire people to take action towards achieving this goal. The United Nations General Assembly declared World Toilet Day as an official UN day in 2013, following a resolution presented by Singapore. Prior to that, World Toilet Day was unofficially established by the World Toilet Organization, a non-governmental organization based in Singapore, in 2001. The official organizer of World Toilet Day is UNWater, which manages the official website of World Toilet Day and selects a special theme for each year. In 2022, the theme is Sanitation and how it protects groundwater. Toilets are important because access to safe and functioning toilets has a positive impact on public health, human dignity, and personal safety, especially for women. Sanitation systems that do not safely treat excreta can lead to the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery, and schistosomiasis. However, if you have access to a hygienic and safe toilet, you are among the fortunate people in the world. In addition to places to properly sort waste, the website wwwKAMsNIMcz also includes locations where you can find the nearest toilet or drinking water tap.
