UN’s World Toilet Day raises awareness for those who have none

Today is World Toilet Day and it’s not meant to be a joke. The United Nations created the holiday to help raise awareness for the billions who lack access to proper sanitation.

The holiday was created in July 2013 as part of the “Sanitation For All” resolution and is coordinated by UN-Water, the inter-agency mechanism that focuses on freshwater issues. According to the UN, 2.4 billion people don’t have access to adequate sanitation and 1 billion people are still defecating in the open.

In addition, the UN recently adopted the 2030 Agenda, which officially says that sanitation is a major part in sustainable development.

“Sanitation is central to human and environmental health as well as to individual opportunity, development and dignity. Yet today, worldwide, one in every three people lacks improved sanitation, and one in every eight practices open defecation,” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today. He later added that, “...This year’s observance of World Toilet Day focuses on the vicious cycle connecting poor sanitation and malnutrition.”

According to a Wateraid report released today shows that 93.3 percent of the population doesn’t have access to an adequate toilet. Niger comines in second on the list of places without access to an improved toilet.

“We need to bring concrete and innovative solutions to the problem of where people go to the toilet, otherwise we are failing millions of our poorest and most vulnerable children,” UNICEF’s Sanjay Wijesekera said.

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