World Toilet Day is celebrated annually on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and help achieve SDG 6, which promises sanitation for all by 2030. To meet the SDG sanitation target, the world needs to work, on average, five times faster.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) designated the Day on 24 July 2013 by resolution 67/291. The Day also recognizes sanitation and drinking water as human rights and highlights the role of these services for people’s health and environmental integrity.
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 UNentities, 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 (urine and feces) allow for the spread of disease. Serious soil-transmitted diseases and waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery and schistomiasis can result.
The theme for the day this year is “Sanitation in a Changing World,” highlights how climate change, urbanization, migration, and inequality are reshaping how people access something so basic – yet so essential – as a toilet.
According to the United Nations, over 3.5 billion people still live without safely managed sanitation. Climate impacts like droughts, flooding, and extreme weather threaten to make this crisis worse.
Sanitation is not just about infrastructure; it’s about dignity, health, and environmental protection. When sanitation systems fail, entire communities suffer.
Behind these systems are sanitation workers whose labour keeps our communities healthy. Their work, often invisible, deserves recognition, fair pay, and safe working conditions.
From maintaining wastewater systems to cleaning public facilities, these workers form an essential part of public health protection — in Canada and around the world. Through the Unifor Social Justice Fund, members have supported a range of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) projects, helping communities in places such as Eritrea, Somalia, Malawi, and Pakistan.
These projects have provided clean water and safe sanitation to people affected by poverty, disasters, and conflict. They reflect Unifor’s broader commitment to global solidarity and social justice.
At home, access to safe and clean washroom facilities remains a core workplace right.
In the 2023-2026 Unifor collective bargaining programme, members identified this issue as a fundamental health and safety concern – one that must be protected through negotiation and enforcement.
Unifor also stands behind the ITF Transport Workers’ Sanitation Charter and supports the International Transprt Workers Federation’s Safe Rates Campaign, which calls for decent work conditions for road transport workers, including reliable access to clean and safe bathroom facilities. As the world continues to change, our commitment remains steady. Everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the simple assurance that a clean, safe toilet will be there when needed. Sanitation isn’t optional – it’s a human right that underpins health, equality, and justice for all.
