World Toilet Day




World toilet day has passed, this year it was on Sunday 19th November. Having a lifetime of access to a toilet both publicly and privately has made me ignorant to the girls and women who still wait for access to one toilet. I have travelled through third world countries and seen people living in poverty but have never thought about their lack of access to toilets or what that will lead to.

 The Sustainable Development Goals which were launched in 2015 include a target which guaranteed that EVERYONE will have access to a safely-managed household toilet by 2030. World Toilet Day has been created in response to this target to encourage people and organisations to take action and achieve this goal. Therefore the United Nations have designated the date of November 19th to World Toilet Day.


As I am someone who knew little about this day wen starting this course I found the Word Toilet Day website very enlightening as it clearly aims to not only inspire but educate the public about the people who are unfortunate enough to not have access to toilets and sanitation. It not only pushes the argument for global access to toilets but highlights the importance of other sanitary matters, such as Global Handwashing Day 2017, which raises awareness to the importance of washing hands with soap in order to stop the spread of diseases and to save lives.  


As well as highlighting the importance of toilets for the everybody the organisation stresses the importance of safe toilets and sanitation for women in third world countries. In collaboration with WaterAid they have released a multimedia exhibition called Out of Order illustrating the problems women and girls face and what can be done to stop it. The top 10 countries with the most people without decent toilets by percentage are all African countries. Ethiopia is the country with the highest population without decent toilets, at 92.9%. 46 million women and girls in Ethiopia have no safe toilet to go to, this is the equivalent to the entire population of Spain. Shows the help these African countries need in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goal and help the development of the women and girls in these countries.

The report by WaterAid begins by stating the Sustainable Development Goals of achieving safe toilets for everyone by 2030 and discussing how far away we currently are from achieving this goal. It goes on to share the dangers girls and women face from birth as a result of this lack of sanitation. Dirt water, poor toilets and hygiene kills 289,000 children under five every year! This is nothing like we face in our lives and it probably never will be. Those children who do survive this may be unable to absorb nutrients and are then more likely to become malnourished. The problem is not only at home, at school girls are expected to often share unhygienic, unsafe toilets with boys. Many of these girls do not feel safe enough to use these toilets so they avoid eating or drinking at school to avoid verbal or physical abuse. Once the girls start their periods they feel even less safe and often miss classes or stop going to school all together to avoid this ordeal. In sub-Sharan Africa, one in ten girls misses school during their period. These girls are unable to get the education they deserve because they do not have segregated, safe and hygienic toilets at school.

Adulthood does not get any better for the girls as a lack of toilets and facilities for managing menstruation in the workplace hold back women from working and earning a living for themselves, thus, they remain dependent on their husbands or fathers. Women must face these harsh environments while pregnant; one of the threats that await them is the threat of hookworms. Hookworms are spread by defecation and cause diarrhea, anaemia, weight loss and slow child growth. The risk of infection during and after childbirth increases, as sepsis accounts for 11% of maternal deaths worldwide.

An immense change has been made as the percentage of people defecating in the open in Ethiopia has decreased from 80% to 27% since 2000. WaterAid hopes to continue this sanitation development by asking for money better spent from governments and donors, as they aim to pay particular attention to the needs of girls and women. WaterAid also prides itself in incorporating the women in decision making in regards to how the money is spent. Spreading the water and hygiene work, such as water collection, will have a knock on effect on health, education, payed work and gender equality. WaterAid is calling for these changes to be made in the third world countries and involve women as leaders and in non-traditional roles in order to help aid the development of women.

Reading through the World Toilet Day website and the WaterAid report my eyes have been opened to the extreme poverty and injustice that many women are suffering through. From birth to adulthood these women long for something we take for granted. 

 References: 
Crowley, L., et al. (2017). Out of Order – The State of the World’s Toilets 2017. WaterAid.

Sustainable Development Goals. Available: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/. Last accessed 12th Dec 2017.


World Toilet Day . Available: http://www.worldtoiletday.info/. Last accessed 12th Dec 2017.

Comments

  1. Louise Crossley2 January 2018 at 18:37

    Hello,

    Great post about World Toilet Day! Perhaps it is the pessimist in me, but I wanted to gauge your opinion too, World Toilet Day has existed since 2001 with the goal of raising awareness of the sanitation crisis and breaking down the taboos of poo. However, in the 16 years World Toilet Day has existed, the rate in which sanitation has improved in Sub-Saharan Africa has been dismal, 2.3 billion people still lack basic sanitation and just under a billion people still practice open defecation. I believe World Toilet Day has been useful in breaking down taboos which has then allowed people to talk about their sanitation needs, something people often find embarrassing, however, I don't think it is the most successful method.

    Community led sanitation projects have been highly successful in teaching, young girls especially, how to deal with menstruation and still attend school. This involved providing reusable pads and teaching them how to wash them and wash themselves at school whilst menstruating. Often many of these community approaches include the young girls mothers, which helps break down taboos and allows women to discuss these issues with one another, and has resulted in an numerous girls remaining in school.

    And so this leads me to my question, do you believe these issues should be addressed on a global scale with initiatives such as World Toilet Day, or are community based approaches a far more effective way of tackling the issues?

    I look forward to you reply,

    Louise.

    p.s. I highly recommend you read this article, it is about breaking down taboos related to menstrual hygiene, although it is not solely based on Sub-Saharan Africa it is still a great read.
    http://www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/sites/communityledtotalsanitation.org/files/Frontiers6_MHM.pdf

    ReplyDelete

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