Almost 30 percent of the world do not have access to latrines. The lack of access deprives people of a good health, safety and dignity.
One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure availability and sustainable management of sanitation and water for all by 2030. Part of this goal is to ensure that everyone has a safe toilet and that no-one practises open defecation.
For people forced to flee, access to clean water and appropriate sanitation facilities are amongst the most urgent of all needs.
This is why you should care about toilets:
1. Bad sanitation facilities kill 280,000 people each year
Without proper sanitation, water supplies can become contaminated and diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid can spread rapidly. On average, almost 1,000 children under five years die each day due to diarrhoeal diseases. Access for all to safe water, sanitation and hygiene would reduce global diseases with 10 per cent, according to the world health organisation.
- We build proper sanitation facilities and supply safe drinking water
- Run active disease surveillance and increased vigilance on water quality and sanitation practices during disease outbreaks
2. All women should be safe
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable when going to the toilet in the open. Many choose to wait until it is dark before they go, making them even more prone to abuse and sexual assaults. In schools, girls need private and functioning toilets to prevent them from dropping out.
- We build and maintain safe and clean latrines or toilets, so women and girls, men and boys can feel safe.
Read more: How private toilets changed the everyday life of women in Mogadishu, Somalia.
3. Children should have access to clean water and proper toilets in school
One in three schools do not have safe water or adequate sanitation. Without proper sanitation facilities children have to go to the toilet outside in the school grounds, this may cause girls to drop out of school or not come to school when they are menstruating. No child should have to end their education due to lacking toilets in school.
- We support the right to education by ensuring that safe latrines and clean water at schools are accessible to all students and teachers.
- We collaborate with teachers to deliver up-to-date hygiene promotion.
In Basra, Iraq, more than 277,000 children face disease outbreak due to unsafe water in schools.
4. Toilets can help create renewable energy
Why not make your poo turn into something useful? Be creative!
- In the refugee camp Kakuma, in Kenya, the need for latrines are enormous. In collaboration with UNHCR we transform human waste into charcoal briquettes. The briquettes are a low-cost alternative to wood charcoal for cooking.
5. Access to sanitation is a human right
In 2010, UN declared access to safe water and sanitation a human right. Still 4.5 billion people lack proper sanitation facilities. Access to sanitation and clean water is essential to human dignity.
- We build toilets, promote safe hygiene and encourage displaced people to take an active role in our operations to improve sanitation facilities.
