World Toilet Day 2020: Sustainable Sanitation & Climate Change

World Toilet Day is a United Nations Observance on 19 November that celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation. This year's theme is "Sustainable Sanitation and Climate Change".

Hyderabad:Today the world commemorates World Toilet Day (WTD), an annual global event organised by UN-Water to raise awareness of the crucial role that sanitation plays in reducing disease and creating healthier communities.

The UN chooses a World Toilet Day theme every year, to continue raising awareness of the need for proper sanitation facilities. Some of the past themes include Wastewater, Toilets and Jobs, Toilets and Nutrition, Equality and Dignity.

• What is World Toilet Day?

World Toilet Day is a day for action which is celebrated globally on November 19. World Toilet Day is a day to promote awareness about all people who do not have access to a toilet – despite the human right to water and sanitation.

World Toilet Day was enacted by the World Toilet Organization in 2001 and after Twelve years since then, in 2013, the UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day.

Despite access to proper sanitation being declared a basic right, one in three people across the world, so some 2.5 billion people in total, don't have regular access to a restroom.

Additionally, even amongst people who do have such access, unclean and unsafe toilets pose problems of their own, including contributing towards the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis—in some parts of Africa, diarrhoea is one among the most child-killers.

• What is the Significance of World Toilet Day?

Without the World Toilet Day, it would be difficult to know how urgent the issue of sanitation is. In 2014, World Toilet Day India celebrations revealed that more than 60.4% of the population didn’t have access to toilets. This is shocking since the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene practices is causing deaths, and this is something that needs urgent attention. This day raises awareness and breaks the taboo in our society of talking about toilets. It is also a time to celebrate modern innovation in the sanitation field. From the first flush toilet, self-cleaning toilets to eco-friendly plumbing advancement that has reduced the amount of water and dollars used every year.

Quotes

Universal access to sanitation in households and schools is essential in:

• Reduction of diseases
• Improved nutritional status of children
• Enhancement of safety, and well-being of children
• Growth of educational prospects, especially for women and girls
• How to Celebrate World Toilet Day

Every year, millions of people promote the World Toilet Day via online petitions, campaigns and getting involved in World Toilet Day events held worldwide. The most common observance for this day is via social media where the hashtags #worldtoiletday, #ToiletAccessIsARight, #WeCantWait are popularly used to spread awareness.

Rural households with no toilet

• World Toilet Day- Interesting Fact

40% of the globe —over 2.4 billion people — lack access to improved sanitation.

Over the past 200 years, toilets have added twenty years to the human lifespan.

As a component of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the UN hopes to confirm availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

More people within the world have access to mobile phones than toilets.

Poor sanitation increases the chance for malnutrition and disease, especially for girls and kids

Diarrheal disease is the second leading reason behind death among children under five and is entirely preventable with access to proper sanitation and clean water.

For every dollar invested in water and sanitation, there's a $4.30 return within the sort of reduced health care costs round the world.

• Findings of NSS report 2018 About India

1. About 56.6 percent of the households in the rural areas and about 91.2 percent of the households in the urban areas had access to the bathroom.
2. Among the households which had access to the bathroom, about 48.4 percent in the rural areas and about 74.8 percent in the urban areas used bathroom attached to the dwelling unit.
3. About 71.3 percent of the households in the rural areas and about 96.2 percent of the households in the urban areas had access to a latrine. It may be noted that there may be respondent bias in the reporting of access to latrine as question on benefits received by the households from government schemes was asked prior to the question on access of households to latrine.
   

   Percentage distribution of households by access to Toilets

The 76th NSS round conducted by the National Statistical Organization (NSO) found that as of September 2018, 28.7% of India’s rural households lacked access to toilets and 32% practised open defecation. At that time, official data from the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) painted a much more optimistic picture claiming that just 6% of India’s households lacked access to a toilet.

And though the NSO has qualified their findings, other external surveys reveal similar discrepancies with administrative data. While SBM has improved sanitation, India may be far from completely open-defecation free, those surveys and independent researchers suggest.