Remember World Toilet Day

November 15, 2008 by Emmanuel Sigauke ·
Filed under: General & Common

This coming Wednesday, November 19, is World Toilet Day. Declared by 17 international toilet associations in 2001, the day is built upon the following World Toilet Organization (WTO)objectives:

Establish a world body to coordinate and promote sanitation issues.

To continuously generate awareness for the importance of a good toilet environment.

To gather resources and promote creative development in the Research & Development, Usage & Attitudes and Aesthetics & Functionalities in Design for the betterment of health in general.

To propagate the need for better toilet standards in both the developed and developing economies of the world.

To provide and promote a community of all toilet associations, related organizations and committed individuals to facilitate an exchange of ideas, health and cultural matters.

To collate, publish and disseminate information globally in a timely and viable manner globally.

Since 2001 there has been established an annual World Toilet Summit and many other regional conferences. Each toilet association has also engaged in many activities promoting clean toilets in their own respective country. According to the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), “ World Toilet Day has become a global platform for academics, sanitation experts, toilet designers, environmentalists etc. to share the latest on rural and urban toilets.”

The World Toilet Organisation asks you, wherever you are, to request better equality (more facilities for women); more accessibility & special provisions (for the disabled & mothers with babies); clean toilets (for everyone); and more toilets (for the less fortunate).

Now, in a country where we are trying to focus on taking care of the most basic of need, it’s tempting to ask, “Who cares about toilet rights?” In fact, not many people know about the existence of such a day, but here is what the WTO suggests you can do on the day:

JOIN the cause on Facebook: Toilets for the Poor
BLOG about the cause November 19th, and write an article why we all deserve better
PROMOTE the day by putting your instant messenger on Facebook status as: TODAY IS WORLD TOILET DAY
SHARE by “cutting and pasting” in your email to your network. Click here to get full text for sharing with others.
CREATE an event in your school or city. Add your event for World Toilet Day on our website by emailing nora@worldtoilet.org