World Toilet Day 2023

The World Toilet Day is celebrated throughout the world from November 13 to 19 every year. The theme of the World Toilet Day 2023 is – “Accelerating Change” and the Sub-theme is – “Management of Public Toilets”.

On the occasion, Deputy Speaker Indira Rana has said that all citizens should have access to toilets with hygienic standard.

She was addressing a programme organized to mark World Toilet Day 2023 on November 17 in Lalitpur. She said effective awareness on the significance of health and sanitation should be generated among all people.

She also stressed on need of self-discipline for the proper use of the toilet. The Deputy Speaker emphasized more on raising awareness on this topic rather than confining it to laws.

Chairman of Smart WASH Solutions, Er. Ramdeep Sah, on the occasion, shared the data that 3 billion people throughout the world did not have access to toilet and 1,000 children die daily due to using unhygienic toilet. He also said that 419 million people around the world do not have toilet, they go open defecation. 

Sah elaborated that a survey conducted in Nepal found that only three out of 50 toilets in the country were usable. He stressed that all the three tiers of the government – federal, provincial and local level – should be committed for the promotion and improvement of public toilets. The public places like health institutions, market places, schools, colleges, highways should have clean and healthy toilets. An appropriate size of budget also should be taken into consideration for the toilets to make and maintain, he added.

Former Government Minister Ganesh Shah said the toilets link to human health, water systems and ultimately to climate change effects. Thus, a healthy toilet is more important from so many point of views. He also added that hospitals and schools and at public places are found in unsanitary in Nepal. Moreover, he stressed collective efforts from all sectors for improving water and sanitary health condition in the country.

Country Representative of WaterAid Nepal, Tripti Rai said there has been a gradual improvement in public toilets in Nepal, pointing out the need of formulating effective policy on use of toilet. She stressed on the need of constructing gender-friendly toilets.

Smart WASH Solutions, the organizer of the workshop programme is working on sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for considering the challenging issues. Safe water to drink is one of the most basic needs of human. Access to water and sanitation plays a crucial role in the overall social and economic development of a community. Therefore, this sector should be given a high priority for development, in a sustainable and socially acceptable manner, with the use of appropriate technologies.

The organization, Smart WASH Solutions, established in 2018 as a non-profit organization aims to raise awareness of WASH problems in Nepal. It will strengthen cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders on finding solution to WASH problems by sharing knowledge experience, building capacities as well as implementing new technologies.

Smart WASH Solutions states that the WASH sector status and management in Nepal are still in poor conditions so there is still need to vigorously work for improvement on WASH from both government and private sectors. For ensuring the availability and sustainable management of Water and Sanitation for all (SDG Goal 6) and addressing the WASH issues on all communities including institutions and the system of dysfunctional and non-existing facilities and services has to be improved. For improving this, there is great need of collaborative work with different level of stakeholders (government and private sectors) including academicians and researchers with national and international WASH stakeholders and Universities.

World Toilet Day (WTD) is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and around 673 million people practice open defecation.  Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. In particular, target 6.2 is to “End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene”. When the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 was published, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Today, Sustainable Development Goal 6 is badly off track” and it “is hindering progress on the 2030 Agenda, the realization of human rights and the achievement of peace and security around the world”.

World Toilet Day exists to inform, engage and inspire people to take action toward achieving this goal. The UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day in 2013, after Singapore had tabled the resolution (its first resolution before the UN’s General Assembly of 193 member states). Prior to that, World Toilet Day had been established unofficially by the World Toilet Organization (a Singapore-based NGO) in 2001.

UN-Water is the official convener of World Toilet Day. UN-Water maintains the official World Toilet Day website and chooses a special theme for each year. In 2020 the theme was “Sustainable sanitation and climate change”. In 2019 the theme was ‘Leaving no one behind’, which is the central theme of the Sustainable Development Goals. Themes in previous years include nature-based solutions, wastewater, toilets and jobs, and toilets and nutrition. World Toilet Day is marked by communications campaigns and other activities. Events are planned by UN entities, international organizations, local civil society organizations and volunteers to raise awareness and inspire action.

Toilets are important because access to a safe functioning toilet has a positive impact on public health, human dignity, and personal safety, especially for females. Sanitation systems that do not safely treat excreta (feces) allow the spread of disease. Serious soil-transmitted diseases and waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery and schistosomiasis can result. (By R. P. Narayan)