World Toilet Day (WTD) is an annual global event organized by the United Nations (UN) Water to raise awareness of the crucial role that sanitation plays in reducing disease and creating healthier communities. The humanitarian inspired day is celebrated every year on November 19. This year’s theme, “Leaving No One Behind,” emphasizes the importance of expanding sanitation access to the more than 4.2 billion people living without safely managed sanitation options. WTD was formally recognized by United Nation General Assembly as the World Toilet Day in 2013
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. The Agency’s comprehensive approach includes engaging the private sector to develop aspirational and affordable products, unlocking financing, and strengthening sanitation governance coupled with behaviour change to encourage use and maintenance and goes beyond toilet construction to address weak demand and low capacity for sanitation improvements.
According to the UN, ‘safely managed sanitation service’ means that people are using hygienic toilet facilities that are not shared with other people in the house. It also ensures that the excreta are either separated from human contact or safely disposed off. USAID’s Water and Development Plan confirmed its commitment to help close the sanitation gap and provide 8 million people with sustainable access to sanitation services by 2022.
Photographer,Sudharak Olwe has been documenting the lives of Mumbai’s sanitation workers in India for about two decades. According to Olwe “The worker’s lives remain substantially unchanged despite India’s overall economic, social and technological advancements. They collect the city’s garbage, sweep the streets, clean the gutters, load and unload garbage trucks and work in the dumping grounds. They have little or no education and they have to work in the midst of filth, with no protective gear, not even access to water for washing off the slime” says Olwe. Sanitation is a person’s human right and despite that even today, 4.2 billion people are deprived of safely managed sanitation, A toilet is not a mere toilet but it is in fact “life-saver”, dignity-protector” and “opportunity-maker”, says the UN.
According to the UN, WTD aims to provide access to sustainable sanitation to all by 2030. An estimated 47 million people in Nigeria do not use toilets causing nearly 87,000 diarrheal deaths in children under the age of five. Furthermore, poor sanitation contributes to several other neglected tropical diseases (NTD) and undernutrition. Therefore, the Minister of Federal Ministry of Environment (FMoE) in Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammad Mahmood assured that the Federal Government was committed to addressing the sanitation challenges, including open defecation in the country and ensuring proper management of excreta. He explained that training infrastructure would be provided to equip community members with a practical demonstration of facilities of colleges of Health Technology at Keffi, Nassarawa State, Kallungo in Gombe State, Kankia- Katsina State, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Ugheli, Delta State, and Umudike Abia State.
