World Toilet Day
Did you know?
- 2.6 billion people do not have somewhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet.
- One gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs.
- The simple act of washing hands with soap and water after going to the toilet can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%.
- Safe disposal of children's faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40% in childhood diarrhoea.
19 November is World Toilet Day – a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis.
Imagine life without a toilet. No toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere. Imagine the mess. Imagine the disease.
It's hard to imagine life without something we take for granted, but this is the daily reality for 2.6 billion people – 40% of the world's population.
Without toilets disease and death are rife. Illness prevents people from working and stops children going to school. Teenage girls are too embarrassed to go to school without latrines and teachers won't work in them.
WaterAid is working hard to change this, using simple and low cost solutions, and there are many easy and fun ways you can and get involved too...
Take action now!
Here are some ideas for things you can do on World Toilet Day:
Make a donation
To mark World Toilet Day, donate to WaterAid with your credit or debit card and help us reach even more people in urgent need of safe sanitation.
Get writing
Send a letter to your local newspaper editor telling them about World Toilet Day and explain why you're concerned that 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation.
Download a sample World Toilet Day letter here (
28Kb)
turdlywinks
Play turdlywinks and get people talking about toilets. The game aims to highlight facts about the global sanitation crisis. It is available to play online here, or you can download it as a board game (
PDF 738Kb).
Tinkle time
Put up the Tinkle Test poster ( PDF 100Kb) wherever you can. The toilet door is always a good place. The poster reminds people of both the importance of having a safe, plentiful supply of drinking water and having a safe, clean place to go to the toilet.
Poopla
Play Poopla with friends or colleagues. By getting people to throw fake poos into a life-size model loo you remind people how lucky they are to have a toilet! For more details on organising this, contact campaigns@wateraid.org.
Madagascar case study
Find out how WaterAid is helping improve sanitation facilities in a brand new project in Madagascar. Finding out how WaterAid is working to improve sanitation facilities around the world underlines the importance of getting involved with World Toilet Day.
If you have any questions on any of the ideas suggested above, or need help planning a public event, then please contact us at campaigns@wateraid.org.
To find out more about what you can do to campaign for WaterAid this World Toilet day, download the new World Toilet Day campaigners' toolkit ( PDF 302Kb)
Get involved
