This may be an unsavory topic for some, but we need to address this problem as it concerns all of us if we are to have a safe and healthy way of living. It is about toilets and how important this facility is for each and every one of us. So much so that the UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day in 2013.
World Toilet Day is celebrated on November 19th each year to bring awareness and behavioural change, and to improve access to proper sanitation in rural areas. This is also is a wake-up call to end open water disposal, which can risk public health.
The theme for World Toilet Day this year is “When Nature Calls”. And When Nature Calls, we should have a toilet. But, billions of people don’t have one. This means human faeces, on a massive scale, is not properly disposed of and is contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. Improper disposal of human wastes is turning our environment into an open sewer. Thus the need to build toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with the ecosystems.”
On this World Toilet Day, let us be aware of our basic necessity to a toilet and proper sanitation everywhere.