COULD you imagine not having a toilet? What if for one day only, no-one in our country had a toilet - it’s pretty unthinkable isn’t it? Yet for 2.6 billion people in the world having no toilet is a daily reality. Children are literally dying for the toilet, in the developing world a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases.
November 19th each year is set for the celebration of World Toilet Day (WTD). Since its inception in 2001 by the World Toilet Organisation. WTD has been observed globally by member organizations raising global awareness of the struggle faced by 2.6 billion people every day without access to proper, clean sanitation.
According to WaterAid Head of Research, policy and advocacy Ms Abella Bateyunga, Tanzania has marked this day over the years with issues of press releases, media workshop among other activities. In order to commemorate the same day this year, says Bateyunga, WaterAid in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and social welfare and other WASH stakeholders have organized a Media Training Day on Friday.
"The main purpose of the training is to raise awareness on the Sanitation crisis among media professionals, to encourage them to increase media coverage on toilets and to create a network of journalist who can report on water, hygiene and sanitation in the country," she says. The power of the media can be used to inform and advocate for the rights of Tanzanians who have to live without the basic necessity of somewhere safe to go to the toilet.
In 2001 WTO declared 19th November World Toilet Day (WTD). Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events being hosted by various water and sanitation advocates. World Toilet Organization created WTD to raise global awareness of the struggle billions face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation. WTD also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation.
WTD's popularity is gaining momentum, and in 2010 there were 51 events spanning 19 countries. The "Big Squat" campaign generated 24 "Big Squats" globally and in Singapore over 600 squatters joined the cause in six locations island-wide. WaterAid in Tanzania would love to see the day becomes "The" event that represents the sanitation crisis countrywide, and strongly encouraging members, volunteers, the community, media and partners to get behind this cause and support the day.
Last year, a group of concerned private citizens of the world under the aegis of World Toilet Organization (WTO) decided to draw global attention to the dire consequences of neglecting man's toilet needs. WTO is dedicated to drumming up awareness and providing supportive action plans on the vital need to provide majority of humanity today access to a holistic and sustainable sanitation regimen.
The organisation works on the premise that the lack of functional toilets among the world's poor, contributes to about 40 per cent of the diseases that kill them yearly. On the other hand, WTO maintains, the elimination of the contagion associated with poor hygiene and social sanitary habits, which lack of toilets exacerbates will reduce deaths and personal and national economic costs by the same margin of 40 per cent.
In most of the developing countries like Africa, many people and their governments pay more attention to eating than they do to the disposal of the inevitable wastes they generate from their food intakes. This inexplicable disregard for the laws of polarity in nature is even noticeable among the affluent in Nigeria.
But the more blame goes to physical planners, our urban and town planners and the architects who formulate policies and design our cities and towns. It is the height of existential myopia to design any living place without a thought given to the disposal of human and other domestic wastes.
This has nothing to do with the level of development because even animals - dogs and cats, make elaborate efforts to dispose and conceal their waste products. In Tanzania today, it is common sight and practice to see citizens defecating right in the open fields, into public water ways or simply utilizing the ubiquitous plastic bag to relieve themselves - which they haul anywhere it is convenient to do so.
Facts on the ground seem to support the WTO's claims: Of the 2.5 billion global poor with no state comprehensive sanitation system (including the management of human fecal matters), 1.8 million, mostly children, die yearly due to diseases related to unsafe disposal of fecal matters.
Even in developed, affluent societies, sewage disposal sometimes ends up destroying the water sources. Associated with this water pollution, and direct contamination, are diseases like diarrhoea which kills 5000 children daily, more than five times the number that die of HIV/AIDS daily. Lack of efficient disposal of human wastes and the taboo placed on openly discussing the issue was one of the reasons why one Mr Jack Sim started the World Toilet Organization in 2001.
There is a need to applaud the initiative of Mr Sim in forcing the issues of global toilet insufficiency, which has only ended up costing the world more than it could reasonably bear, to public notice. What is needed today, as much as potable water, is a government-ordered provision of functional toilets in all private and public places.
Perhaps this policy will energize government's efforts to provide potable water for citizens which will cut national and global health bills by as much as 40 per cent. Because of the comprehensive lack of clean, potable water, one of the major sources of diseases that cause more deaths than other sub-headings combined, is the lack of efficient toilet facilities to dispose of human wastes for a majority of peoples of the world.
It appears short-sighted to think only of eating and not of how the natural by-products would be eliminated and disposed of. Government should, indeed, see this initiative as a call to action not only to build and maintain more public toilets but to ensure that all houses, private and public have functional toilets.
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