NOVEMBER is World Toilet Day. It may sound trivial – even comic – but the stakes are deadly serious.
Every year, the United Nations marks World Toilet Day to raise awareness of what it calls a grave sanitation crisis. The aim is to inspire global action to address the critical lack of safe, dignified sanitation in the developing world.
Many of us may be shocked to learn that more than half the global population lacks access to a single decent toilet.
According to the United Nations, 4.5 billion people live without proper sanitation. This means human waste is not being safely captured or treated, contaminating the water and soil that sustain life. Nearly 900 million people still defecate in the open. The UN warns that we are turning our environment into an open sewer.
The disparity in the Philippines is stark. In affluent enclaves such as Forbes Park in Makati City, some homes feature as many as nine bathrooms. Meanwhile, in rural communities, around seven million Filipinos still relieve themselves in open fields, and one-third of schools operate without any toilet facilities.
Thankfully, some local communities are receiving help from charitable foundations and civic groups that step in when government resources fall short or priorities lie elsewhere.
Numerous Rotary clubs across the Philippines have risen to the challenge building several hundred toilets in rural areas including the Rotary Club of Intramuros-Manila which installed 25 toilets in Aeta communities nestled in the remote mountainous areas of Luzon.
In Negros Occidental, Tuloy Pinoy Negros – funded by the Hiligaynon Group of Switzerland, a network of Negrense working abroad – has supported the construction of school toilets, bringing dignity and safety to hundreds of students.
As commendable as these efforts are, they barely scratch the surface. Around 20 million Filipinos still lack access to basic toilet facilities, especially in rural areas.
“Diseases caused by unsafe or unhygienic practices greatly reduce children’s chances of completing school and growing up healthy,” said a UNICEF Philippines representative.
“In rural areas where poverty is high, inequalities are worsened by the vicious cycle linking poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, poor health, and low productivity.”
Globally, nearly two million people die each year from diseases linked to human waste. Most victims are children, whose small bodies are especially vulnerable to fatal dehydration caused by diarrhea.
A quiet moment in a clean bathroom may seem ordinary – but it’s a luxury denied to billions.
