World Toilet Day

When we see the acronym “WTO,” we typically think World Trade Organization.  But there is another WTO, one that is much more important and fundamental—the World Toilet Organization.  It was founded on November 19, 2001.  And, therefore, the United Nations has designated November 19 each year as World Toilet Day.

            You can make all the jokes you wish—is this the world’s number two problem?—but sanitation is a major issue around the world.  According to the United Nations, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation,” which means toilet facilities that effectively collect, treat and dispose of human wastes, and do it so people are safe and dignified.  Nearly 700 million people have no sanitation facilities at all, so they defecate on the ground—not sanitary, not safe, not dignified.

Jack Sim, the founder of World Toilet Day, thinking about how to solve the problem (photo by kutoid)

            And not healthy.  Inadequate toilets and related sanitation facilities (like someplace to wash your hands after defecating) cause 432,000 deaths each year because of diarrhea and parasitic infections.  About 1000 children under 5 die from these causes every day.  These issues cause lots of related problems, especially for women and girls—absence from school, violence in unsafe locations, loss of productivity.  Turns out that investing $1 in better sanitation realizes more than $4 in increased productivity.

            Just before the turn of the last century, a successful businessman from Singapore gave up his career and took up the cause of improving sanitation.  Jack Sim is now known universally as Mr. Toilet.  Starting in his homeland and spreading globally, he and his organization, the WTO, have advocated for better sanitation to whomever would listen.  He started the idea of World Toilet Day in 2001, when he founded WTO, and the United Nations endorsed it as an official day in 2013. 

            It hasn’t been easy to get the world’s attention.  Sim says, “It’s called a brown issue because it’s brown in color. Funders [and] donors love “green” issues and “blue” issues — water, forest, animals, then children, women, climate change. These are beautiful pictures you can show, but toilets, sanitation, shit, sewage treatment is really uncomfortable.”  So, he uses humor to get the idea across, often dressing as the poop emoji or snapping toilet selfies in unlikely places and poses.  “We have to compete with Kim Kardashian and football.  When you’re at the bottom of the pile, humor helps a lot.”

Sustainable Development Goal 6 is about water and sanitation for all (image by United Nations)

            But progress is being made.  When the UN established its new Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, an entire goal (goal 6) was devoted to ensuring the “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”  Their most recent report states that from 28% of the world’s population having safely managed sanitation services in 2000, the percentage rose to 45% in 2017.  But the effort must be increased substantially to meet the 2030 goal of good sanitation for all.  Much of the problem is centered in India, where half the population still lacks sanitary facilities, and in Africa.

            When you see a toilet that is “out of order,” it irritates you, right?  Imagine if it were that way every day of your life.  So, appreciate what you have and join in this year’s theme for World Toilet Day—“Leave no one behind!”

References:

Global Citizen.  How ‘Mr. Toilet’ is Using Humor to Talk About Better Sanitation.  Available at:  https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/mr-toilet-jack-sim-interview/.  Accessed November 6, 2019.

United Nations.  Sustainable Development Goal 6.  Available at:  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6.  Accessed November 6, 2019.

United Nations.  World Toilet Day, November 19.  Available at:  https://www.un.org/en/events/toiletday/index.shtml.  Accessed November 6, 2019.

World Toilet Organization.  What’s UN World Toilet Day?  Available at:  http://worldtoilet.org/#.  Accessed November 6, 2019.

This Month in Conservation

February 1
Afobaka Dam and Operation Gwamba (1964)
February 2
Groundhog Day
February 3
Spencer Fullerton Baird, First U.S. Fish Commissioner, Born (1823)
February 3
George Adamson, African Lion Rehabilitator, Born (1906)
February 4
Congress Overrides President Reagan’s Veto of Clean Water Act (1987)
February 5
National Wildlife Federation Created (1936)
February 6
Colin Murdoch, Inventor of the Tranquilizer Gun, Born (1929)
February 7
Karl August Mobius, Ecology Pioneer, Born (1825)
February 8
President Johnson Addresses Congress about Conservation (1965)
February 8
Lisa Perez Jackson, Environmental Leader, Born (1982)
February 9
U.S. Fish Commission Created (1871)
February 10
Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, born (1944)
February 11
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
February 12
Judge Boldt Affirms Native American Fishing Rights (1974)
February 13
Thomas Malthus Born (1766)
February 14
Nature’s Faithful Lovers
February 15
Complete Human Genome Published (2001)
February 16
Kyoto Protocol, Controlling Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, Begins (2005)
February 16
Alvaro Ugalde, Father of Costa Rica’s National Parks, Born (1946)
February 17
Sombath Somphone, Laotian Environmentalist, Born (1952)
February 17
R. A. Fischer, Statistician, Born (1890)
February 18
World Pangolin Day
February 18
Julia Butterfly Hill, Tree-Sitter, Born (1974)
February 19
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Established (1962)
February 20
Ansel Adams, Nature Photographer, Born (1902)
February 21
Carolina Parakeet Goes Extinct (1918)
February 22
Nile Day
February 23
Italy’s Largest Inland Oil Spill (2010)
February 24
Joseph Banks, British Botanist, Born (1743)
February 25
First Federal Timber Act Passed (1799)
February 26
Four National Parks Established (1917-1929)
February 27
International Polar Bear Day
February 28
Watson and Crick Discover The Double Helix (1953)
February 29
Nature’s Famous Leapers
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