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, 3.4 billion people live without "safely managed sanitation" and around 354 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 (urine and feces) allow for the spread of disease. Serious soil-transmitted diseases and waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery and schistosomiasis can result.
Convener
In 2013, UN-Water and the "Thematic Priority Area (TPA) on Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation" received the mandate to oversee World Toilet Day each year. This mandate is described in the United Nations Resolution A/67/L.75. In consultation with the UN-Water World Toilet Day Task Force, made up of UN-Water member organizations, UN-Water selects the theme based on that year's World Water Development Report and develops content for World Toilet Day communications campaigns. UN-Water manages the World Toilet Day website which promotes key issues and stories, provides communications and campaigns resources, and announces events and opportunities to participate. The overall World Toilet Day campaign mobilizes civil society, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, academics, corporations and the general public to participate in the associated social media and communications campaigns. Ultimately, the aim is to encourage organizations and governments to plan activities and action on sanitation issues to make progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6.
Annual themes
Since 2012, each World Toilet Day has been given a theme. Since 2016, the same overall annual theme has been used for both World Toilet Day and World Water Day, based on the World Water Development Report.
2012 – "I give a shit, do you?" 2013 – Tourism and water 2014 – Equality and dignity 2015 – Toilets and nutrition 2016 – Toilets and jobs 2017 – Wastewater 2018 – Nature-based solutions (slogan: "When Nature calls") 2019 – Leaving no one behind – The campaign draws attention to those people being "left behind without sanitation and the social, economic and environmental consequences of inaction". This is closely related to Sustainable Development Goal 6 which has a target to eliminate open defecation and ensure "everyone has access to sustainable sanitation services by 2030, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations". 2020 – Sustainable sanitation and climate change 2021 – Valuing toilets: The WTO and Bill Gates both believe that if value can be given to toilet waste, then funds will be generated to pay for any cleanup including profits for entrepreneurs interested in investing in related industries. 2022 – Groundwater and sanitation – making the invisible visible. 2023 – Accelerating Change 2024 – Toilets are a place for peace. 2025 – Sanitation in a changing world
Examples of activities and events
Launch of reports Some organizations launch toilet-related (or sanitation-related) reports on World Toilet Day. For example:
The Toilet Board Coalition (2017) "Sanitation Economy" Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) (2017) "Guide to strengthening the enabling environment for faecal sludge management" The International Labour Office (ILO) (2016) "WASH@Work: self-training handbook WHO, UNICEF and USAID (2015) "Improving Nutrition Outcomes with Better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Practical Solutions for Policies and Programmes"
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