Do you give a crap about World Toilet Day?

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18 Nov 02:53pm

Filed under: Developing World, Disease, Health, Poverty, Sanitation, Water

The propensity for us ascribe days to inanimate objects seems endless. Some of the more obscure that we’ve encountered recently include ‘Picnic Day’, ‘World TV Day’ (which coincidentally shares a day with ‘World Hello Day’, one promoting socialising and one well…not), ‘Lefthanders Day’ and everybody’s favourite, ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’.

The

So it would not be out of the question to, upon hearing the words ‘World Toilet Day’, shake your head, perhaps laugh, and turn the page, or click the link for Laser Hair Solutions in the right side panel (because this site appreciates the plight of the left hander when designing web content).

All jokes aside, World Toilet Day is an internationally recognised and significant promoting a critical issue for 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. It is the lack of safe toilets. We know the solution and we have the technology to simply, effectively and practically make a difference, all we need is the will.

So the question is… ‘This world toilet day, will you give a crap?’

The shocking reality is 2.5 billion people in the world do not have a safe place to go to the toilet, and 18% of the world’s population are forced to perform public defecation. That amounts to 500,000 tonnes of poo being dumped in the environment every day. It is a horrific statistic and one that highlights the underlying injustice of extreme poverty. We in Australia don’t even have to think about it, in fact we take it as a given that there will be a private and operational toilet available to us at all times. It’s hardly a luxury - or is it?

How would you feel if you didn’t have private place to poo? If you had to do it on a street, by a tree, in front of friends or worse, total strangers? Certainly this poses a greater problem for women and children. For women it becomes an issue of indignity and ultimately health. Opting to hold on all day as opposed to performing open defecation, women reduce their food and water intake to manage which subsequently leads to drastic health issues. Pregnant women are also far more susceptible to infection resulting from poor sanitation.

Horrifically and all too commonly with issues of extreme poverty, this issue affects children the most in the developing world. 1.6 million children die every year from diarrhea resulting from a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation. It is the root cause of more child deaths than malaria, HIV/AIDS and measles combined. Without increased spending on sanitation these figures cannot and will not drastically improve. It is a senseless waste to continue to let children die for something as simple as a toilet. We need to take action.

Water, sanitation and hygiene are fundamental to sustainable development and ending poverty. Investing in these areas will allow progress on the following Millennium Developing Goals and enable us to…

- End extreme poverty.
- Promote Gender Equality and empower Women,
- Reduce Child Mortality,
- Improve Maternal Health; and
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

World Toilet Day is tomorrow, November 19th and acknowledges the need to commit to this issue. One of our partners at The Global Poverty Project, Wateraid will be hosting a BIG SQUAT flash mob in Melbourne’s CBD to raise awareness and the Australian Toilet Organisation is putting on the Sanitation is Dignity :Where would you hide? exhibit.

At the Global Poverty Project we have developed a presentation that educates and informs the community on the challenges and opportunities of extreme poverty and what we can do in an every day sense to make a difference.

For more information on how you can take action, by donating, participating in the squat or lobbying on this issue visit our websites www.globalpovertyproject.com and www.wateraid.org/australia

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12 comments

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- T.Chong says:
  
  02:56pm | 18/11/09
  
  An important topic, no doubt, but a definite 8.5/10 for the headline.
  
  Reply
- Jenny Steeves says:
  
  04:54pm | 18/11/09
  
  Lovely article, and thank you for your support on this serious topic.
  
  I just wanted to let everyone know you can organize your own Big Squat no matter where you are. Google employees have organized ones in their office in Singapore and Chicago. It’s a global movement - if you will. Organize one in just 4 steps: http://worldtoiletday.com/squat/toolkit.html
  
  Squatting to save the world,
  Jenny
  Global Coordinator for World Toilet Day
  World Toilet Organization
  
  Reply
- Eric says:
  
  06:12pm | 18/11/09
  
  Well, this was a reasonable article until you started with the “women and children worst affected” crap. As soon as I see a cause that places men at the bottom (nudge nudge) of the scale, I tune out.
  
  Before I consign you to the dustbin of history, I’ll just point out that the problem isn’t lack of will or lack of means—it’s third world government corruption. We could fix these problems if we just cleared out the dictators and bureaucrats who grow fat on aid corruption.
  
  But I guess you’re too busy blaming evil white male capitalists to actually look at the root of the problem.
  
  Reply
- stephen says:
  
  08:36pm | 18/11/09
  
  I’d say the way the Palestine-Israel resolution is progessing, the only place for a crap in America is smack-bang in the White House.
  
  Reply
- Stefano says:
  
  08:56pm | 18/11/09
  
  I just wanted my post to be No. 2
  
  Reply
- Eric Redbeard says:
  
  09:48pm | 18/11/09
  
  Great article - you clearly know your shit!
  
  Reply
- Eric says:
  
  10:00pm | 18/11/09
  
  One only has to travel a few hours to some of our northern neighbours to actually appreciate something we all take for granted, and that is a comfortable & clean place to go to the toilet, no crap.
  
  Reply
- Wendy says:
  
  12:42am | 19/11/09
  
  Eric 7.12 - this IS an issue that effects women more than men in many parts of the world. Men can easily take a piss in public, and even take a crap without other men caring or women staring (a women staring would be seen as provocative), whereas a women dropping her pants in public would cause a huge spectacle and she would be judged on her immodesty. I’ve lived in developing countries, I’ve seen this and heard first hand stories. Surely you’re aware of how widespread double standards on modesty and covering up are?
  
  Reply
- Eric says:
  
  04:31am | 19/11/09
  
  Wendy 1.42 - I take your point. My first and third paragraphs were hastily typed and quite uncalled-for. I withdraw and apologise for posting them.
  
  I still think the main problem lies with third-world governments, or lack thereof. Too much of our aid goes straight into the pockets of thugs and kleptocrats.
  
  Reply
- Thomas says:
  
  09:02am | 19/11/09
  
  Eric 7:12,
  
  As a white male capitalist, I have some sympathy for you feeling indirectly blamed when an issue is couched as affecting women and children the worst.
  
  However, for a myriad of reasons, it is the truth - all over the world, women and children get the short end of the socio-economic stick. Personally, I’d feel relieved if issues of poverty and corruption affected adult males as badly as women and children, as it would mean that the forces of misogyny, both overt and subtle, that are ingrained in so many cultures (including our own) were nullified.
  
  A great book on the subject is ‘Half the Sky’ by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Check out the description on Amazon and you’ll see what I mean.
  
  Reply
- Ash says:
  
  07:38am | 20/11/09
  
  Thanks Wendy and Thomas for elaborating on the concerns around women and children. And thanks to Eric for owning up to a hasty post.
  
  I also wish it wasn’t true that women and children were most affected by socio-economic realities such as poor sanitation. But it is, and like Wendy I have seen it first hand. Listen to a woman tell you how she can only go to the toilet in the middle of the night when no one can see her and talking about how scared she is because she has friends who have been raped when doing so, and you begin to understand the magnitude of the issue. Listen to her say this while watching a man piss on the sidewalk, and it’s even more poignant.
  
  I will definitely pick up Half the Sky - looks great!
  
  Reply
- Jeremy says:
  
  11:22am | 20/11/09
  
  Eric 5.31, you perpetuate the myth that aid is nothing more than systematic cash transfers from one government to another (Dambisa Moyo, in her much publicised - and overrated in my view - book “Dead Aid” suggests this). This may have been the case a couple of decades back, but aid has come a long way since then.
  
  Alot of aid today comes in the form of “technical assistance”, this non-cash activity involves working within poor government systems so that they become better able to meet the basic needs of their citizens.
  
  By working within these systems rather than outside them (in self contained aid ‘projects’ with a limited life span), the impact of aid is more sustainable too.
  
  Aid is not an exact science. We continue to learn how to make it as effective as it can be. Mistakes are still being made. But I believe modern approaches to aid are ensuring that more of it is reaching those who need it most.
  
  Reply

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