A third of all humanity — around 2.4 billion people — have no access to adequate sanitation. Worldwide a billion people still defecate in the open. Poor sanitation increases the risk of disease and malnutrition, especially for women and children. Meanwhile, women and girls risk rape and abuse, because they have no toilet that offers privacy.
World Toilet Day, held every 19 November, aims to raise awareness about the many people around the world who have no access to a toilet — because it is a human right to have clean water and sanitation. In this short video, I explain how to get the private sector involved in the vital struggle for sanitation. It is based on my own experience of building hundreds of thousands of modern toilets across India, Sri Lanka and Kenya with the FINISH project.
Summing up, “We are committed to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, of which Goal 6 is indeed to ensure access to sanitation for all. But this is not going to help us to attain other goals like access to good health unless… technology, design, localised-awareness programmes, and impact creation at a community level are addressed.”