Taps and toilets for anyone and everyone

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Image: WaterAid/Guilhem Alandry

How frustrating would it be to have a toilet you couldn’t use? Or a tap you couldn’t reach? For too many disabled people, getting a drink, going to the toilet and staying clean is a daily struggle.

Which is why, when we say we want everyone, everywhere to have clean water, a decent toilet and good hygiene, we mean everyone.

We’re working with our local partners to install accessible toilets and taps so no one has to miss out on a healthier, happier future. Together, we’re breaking down barriers too, so that disabled people are included in decisions about water in their communities.

Ending Poppy's struggle

Before our partners installed accessible toilets in her town in Bangladesh, Poppy couldn’t climb the steps to the slum’s long drop toilets. Every time she needed the toilet, she had to go in public by the road or in a field. Getting water to drink or wash with was a real challenge too.

“Before we had to go to the pond to collect water,” she explains. “But now the water is available 24 hours a day.”

Watch Poppy’s video to see how private toilets and clean water have really boosted her confidence.

 

Independence and dignity for Ghulam and Margaret

Without accessible toilets and taps, often the only way to get water or go to the toilet is with the help of someone else.

Ghulam from Pakistan not only had no choice but to go to the toilet in a field; he needed someone to help him too. Thanks to amazing supporters like you, now he can easily use the washroom our partners installed in his home.

Ghulam outside his house, Punjab, Pakistan

“I can now go to the washroom by myself without anyone having to accompany me and without any difficulty,” says Ghulam.

Before there was an accessible borehole in her village in Uganda, Margaret had to crawl on her knees to the pump.

Among Margaret, 43-years-old, and her daughter outside their home in Bobol village, Amuria District, Uganda.

“I would drag the water container back to the wheelchair, making myself dirty each time I went to collect water,” she explains. “Now that I have no problem getting water I am always clean.”

Leaving no one out

Working together, we can reach everyone, everywhere with water, toilets and hygiene within a generation. That means no one having to face the indignity of going to the toilet in public because they use a wheelchair. It means no one having to drink dirty water because it’s too difficult to get to a tap.

“Getting disabled-friendly toilets and a disabled-friendly water source has really improved our lives,” says Poppy.

Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are essential human rights. Together, we can make them a normal part of daily life for everyone.