The toilet: small but mighty
The humble toilet – often overlooked or shrouded in taboo – is a keystone in the health of people and the planet.
Across the world, people have very different experiences when it comes to using public toilets.
Sadly, right now, there are 3.5 billion people living without access to safe toilets and 419 million people still practising ‘open defecation’. In these circumstances, diseases spread, killing around 1,000 children under-five every, single day.
This global crisis poses a threat to nature and everyone’s health, particularly women, girls, and other vulnerable groups.
World Toilet Day 2023 takes place on 19 November. It’s an annual United Nations Observance encouraging action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and this year’s theme is ‘Accelerating Change’.
With just seven years left, the world has to work, on average, five times faster to meet the sanitation target of Sustainable Development Goal 6 – safe toilets and water for all by 2023 – on time.
The World Toilet Day 2023 campaign uses the ancient tale of the hummingbird who does what she can to fight a great fire by carrying droplets of water in her beak. She’s symbolic of doing whatever you can – however small – to help solve the sanitation crisis.
If you want to take personal action, you can find a list of suggested actions on the UN Water website which cover a range of water and sanitation issues as reflected in the targets of SDG 6.
As a provider of sanitation products and services, Simply takes its role seriously as an active supporter of SDG 6 – safe toilets and water for all by 2023. As a business, we have chosen to take the following actions this year:
- Clean up: Take part in a clean-up of local rivers, lakes, wetland or beaches. We will do this through our charity partner Sea Changers
- Break taboos: Talk about the critical connection between toilets, water and menstruation.
By committing to these actions, we are contributing to the Water Action Agenda to help solve the water and sanitation crisis.