World Toilet Day 2020: Sustainable Sanitation and Climate Change

In my last blog post, I concluded by recognising the need to bring attention and solutions to 'The Unmentionable', which is severely hindering sanitary improvement.

Undoubtedly, there is no better day to fulfill that attention component than today, which is, of course, World Toilet Day (WTD) !!!! 

Recognising the importance of this, I have utilised information found across the UN’s WTD website to create 2 key resources that I hope will be of use, including:

• A QUIZ - which I’ve created from the website’s fact page. It’s quick, thought provoking and challenging, testing your knowledge and showcasing why the WTD campaign is so crucial!!

• An EDUCATIONAL TEMPLATE that I’ve developed to be used by teachers and professors in their classrooms and seminars. It aims to prompt students into learning more about the WTD’s themes and objectives, giving them impetus to explore the stories that underpin the campaign. There are 4 sections and model answers at the end. I hope you enjoy!!

With these delivered, the remainder of this blog will be answering a simple question:

Why is WTD so important?

What you hopefully would have learnt from the quiz is that WTD’s importance firstly emerges from the global impact of sanitation disparities. As reflected in Figure 1, an estimated 4.2 billion people live without access to safely managed sanitation, with a huge numbers of households across Sub-Saharan Africa lacking basic handwashing facilities in 2017.

With this year’s theme linking together SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), under a framework of sustainable sanitation, the importance of reducing disparities is bigger than ever. Certainly, this is emphasised by the WHO's paper on ‘Climate,Sanitation and Health’, which remarks that “poor and vulnerable groups face the most immediate and severe consequences from climate change” (pg9). Clearly the relevance and grounded recognition of WTD is hugely important.

Figure 1: Chorpleth map of % of population using handwashing facilities
Source: World Bank

Another crucial reason WTD is so important, however, is that it provides a single, tangible and measurable locus of intervention focus. Recognising the themes of invisibility and discussed in my last blog post, alongside the work by such authors as George (2008), it can therefore be said that the WTD campaign is fundamental in its ability to put 'The Unmentionable’ (poo, shit, defecation etc.) on the map of development and humanitarianism. WTD achieves this by untangling the complex web of sanitation considerations, demanding collective action be centered around a singular object. In doing so, WTD is able to link the SDGs together in manageable ways, all while raising a broad set of questions and problems that are inevitably linked to the multiple materialisations of the toilet throughout space and place. 

As a result, WTD invites collaboration and innovation to become central players on the sanitation stage, allowing the WTD website to showcase ever creative solutions. From 5-star toilets helping health centres in Ghana, to Ending open defecation in Sahel, the WTD website is filled with success stories (literally!!). I would encourage you to go and read! 

Where have we landed?

The WTD website and framework exists to create and propel success, ensuring people win with ‘loos’ and making sure the unmentionable doesn’t become invisible. The success stories released on WTD are benchmarks for future progress and are undoubtedly invaluable. 

However, in thinking more critically, the question I pose to you is whether we should focus on WTD... or alternatively, the everyday? 

This is a vital question for my next post!!