Each year, World Toilet Day is celebrated on 19 November, at the international level to highlight the importance of sanitation and hygiene in driving improvements in public health, gender equality, education, economic development, and environmental protection.
According to the latest WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report, progress on sanitation and hygiene is badly off track. For the 3.6 billion people currently without safely managed sanitation, it's clear there will be no sustainable future without toilets. Governments must work four times faster and ensure toilets for all by 2030.
World Toilet Day is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030, as per the official website.
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World Toilet Day 2021: Theme
Every year the day is celebrated under a specific theme and the theme for this year is – “Valuing Toilets”.
World Toilet Day 2021: Why value toilets?
- We should all value toilets as life without a toilet is dirty, dangerous and undignified.
- Public health depends on toilets.
- We should value toilets as today, nearly half the world’s population live without a ‘safely managed sanitation service’: a toilet, not shared with other households, that either treats or disposes of human waste on-site, stores it safely to be emptied and treated off-site or connects to a functioning sewer.
- Toilets also drive improvements in gender equality, education, economics and the environment.
- Toilets protect women and girls’ dignity, safety and health, especially during menstruation and pregnancy.
- There will be no sustainable future without toilets.
Join the global #WorldToiletDay conversation and show the world how much you care about toilets.