WaterAid’s Big Bog opens to the ‘elooments’ at Glastonbury Festival
WaterAid is proud to present The Big Bog at Worthy Farm this summer, built from some of Glastonbury’s very own infamous mud mixed with local Somerset sand and compost produced by the toilets at previous festivals.
Standing at 2.5 metres high, the giant muddy model of a toilet will sit alongside four functioning Good Loos – environmentally-friendly composting toilets run by the international charity - to highlight the one in five people across the world who don’t have access to decent sanitation.
Come rain or shine, The Big Bog will be left open to the ‘elooments’- cracking if it gets too hot or washing away in the rain - representing how the climate crisis threatens millions of people’s access to basic needs like clean water and toilets.
Just as The Big Bog will get damaged by the Great British weather, rising sea levels and floods are destroying facilities and contaminating unprotected water supplies globally, while droughts dry up wells and springs.
Artists Sand in Your Eye spent more than 40 hours carving Worthy Farm’s biggest WC, which is located near the Pyramid stage. Depicted sitting on top of the earthy throne reading Glastonbury’s Free Press newspaper is one of WaterAid’s legendary Loo Crew volunteers, Tim Lloyd.
While others are twisting and shouting with Paul McCartney and coming out to dance to Diana Ross, Tim will be otherwise engaged looking after Glastonbury’s most important seats – by keeping the toilets clean and the handwashing facilities well stocked.
Tim Lloyd said:
“It’s shocking to think one in five people across the world don’t have access to a decent toilet while one in ten have no clean water, and climate change is making life even harder for those living poverty.
“It is an honour to be immortalised in mud here at Glastonbury and I hope it helps spread the message that everyone, everywhere deserves a clean, safe and reliable toilet. Whether it’s queuing for a drink, waiting to use a toilet, or not being as clean as they’d like, festivals remind people what it might be like for the millions of people who don’t have access to clean water or toilets. I’ll be spreading the message that we can all help make a difference to communities living on the frontline of climate change.”
The striking sculpture is raising awareness of WaterAid’s Climate Fight. The campaign calls on the UK government to ensure everyone has decent toilets and clean water that keeps flowing whatever the future holds, by investing at least one third of their committed international climate budget directly in local projects that bring these essentials.
These basic human rights help improve people’s health, education, livelihoods and safety while also enabling communities to build resilience and take charge of their lives.
Tim Wainwright, WaterAid’s Chief Executive, said:
“We’re delighted to be returning to Glastonbury this year and hoping to make a big splash with The Big Bog. Toilets and mud are two things synonymous with festivals, and whilst this sculpture is a bit of fun, it relays an important message – the climate crisis is a water crisis, and it is threatening millions of people’s access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
“To ensure the world’s most vulnerable people have the tools to face all types of climate impacts from deadly heatwaves to devastating floods, we are calling on the UK government to lead the way in putting access to reliable clean water and sanitation at the forefront of the climate change agenda.”~
WaterAid has been a charity partner of Glastonbury since 1994, supporting the water and sanitation services and highlighting its work to provide clean water and decent toilets to people around the world.
Find out more about WaterAid’s Climate Fight at www.wateraid.org.
ENDS
Download photos: https://wateraid.assetbank-server.com/assetbank-wateraid/images/assetbox/6b67ad21-524e-4988-920a-238f04c2f7e8/assetbox.html
View film: https://youtu.be/XQzG7OTkNds
For more information, please contact:
Jemima Young, Senior Media Officer [email protected] or Laura Crowley, PR Manager at [email protected] or call our press line on +44 (0)7887 521 552.
Notes to Editors:
WaterAid
WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international not-for-profit organisation works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 28 million people with clean water and nearly 29 million people with decent toilets.
For more information, visit our website wateraid.org/uk, follow us on Twitter @WaterAidUK, @WaterAid or @WaterAidPress, or find us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.
771 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home.[1]
1.7 billion people in the world – more than one in five – do not have a decent toilet of their own.[2]
Around 290,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's more than 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes.[3]
Every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity.[4]
Just £15 can provide one person with clean water.[5]
WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
WaterAid calculations based on: Prüss-Ustün A, et al. (2019). Burden of Disease from Inadequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Selected Adverse Health Outcomes: An Updated Analysis with a Focus on Low- and Middle-Income Countries. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. vol 222, no 5, pp 765-777. AND The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2020) Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Seattle, WA: University of Washington.
World Health organization (2012) Global costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to reach the MDG target and universal coverage
