World Toilet Day
Saturday 19 November 2011
It's ten years since the first World Toilet Day and there are still 2.6 billion people with nowhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet.
Readers of the British Medical Journal voted sanitation the single greatest medical advance of the last 150 years.
Yet diarrhoea still kills a child every 20 seconds. In fact, diarrhoea kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
It's a disgrace that this completely preventable crisis continues to blight the lives of billions worldwide. That's why, to mark World Toilet Day 2011, we launched our new global campaign, Water Works, on Friday 18 Nov.
At a time when international aid is controversial, we have a very simple message:
Water works!
- Poor water and sanitation costs Sub-Saharan Africa around 5% of its GDP each year, equivalent to the amount of aid the continent currently receives from western nations.
- For every £1 invested in water and sanitation, £8 is returned in increased economic productivity.
World Toilet Day on Storify:
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Fast facts
Diarrhoea kills a child every 20 seconds Diarrhoea kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined Sanitation is the most cost-effective of any health intervention
Useful links
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