World un-toilet day

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PHOTO ESSAY: World un-toilet day

On World Toilet Day, 2.5 billion people still do not have the most basic of human needs, reports Jameela Freitas.

Not enough toilets is still a very big problem for the world’s poor.

The first UN World Toilet Day was on 19 November 2013 to show the effects of poor sanitation and hygiene.

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Christine Mbabazi’s son died of cholera. She sits outside her house which floods with rubbish and human waste when it rains, Bwaise slum, Kawempe District, Kampala, Uganda. (WaterAid/Benedicte Desrus)

2,000 children die every day from diarrhoea. This is caused by diseases from poor sanitation.

In India, 620 million people go to the toilet in the open. This is the highest number in the world - half of all households do not have working toilets.

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70 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to a toilet. This problem (and unsafe drinking water) kills nearly half a million people in Africa. (WaterAid/Anna Kari)

No toilets has more effect on women. They are more likely to be attacked and raped if they have to walk away from the safety of their home to go to the toilet.

Bad sanitation affects health, work, schooling and women’s safety. And it makes the cycle of poverty and suffering worse.

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WaterAid believes that sanitation should be included in education policy. This will ensure that all schools have a place to wash hands and separate toilets for boys and girls with access for students with disabilities. (WaterAid/Tom Van Cakenberghe)

A new report published on 18 November by WaterAid entitled ‘We Can’t Wait’ makes many suggestions. For example, it says governments must prioritize the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on sanitation. They can do this by giving more money to this area and making sure that the help reaches the poorest people.

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Madeleine Leonie Razafindramasy, 27, and baby Franco, outside their new hygienic toilet. They bought it at a 'sanimarket', Miandrivazo, Madagascar. (WaterAid/Anna Kari)

The report also says that the post-2015 development framework (for after the Millennium Development Goals) must see water, sanitation and hygiene as most important issues. They must reduce and, in the future, end the inequalities in accessing these. WaterAid believes that sanitation should be included in education policy. This will make sure that all schools have a place to wash hands and separate toilets for boys and girls with access for students with disabilities.

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Shobita Das' daughter Puspits, 4, does not have access to safe water, Sylhet, Bangladesh. (WaterAid/GMB Akash/Panos)

‘In 2000, world leaders promised to halve the proportion of people living without access to a basic toilet by 2015. With the present progress, about half a billion people will have to wait another decade before they get this basic service they were promised’, says Barbara Frost, Chief Executive of WaterAid. ‘Every hour 70 women and girls die from diseases from a lack of access to sanitation and water. We can and should do better – these basic services we are talking about can completely change lives.’

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Aminata Rabo and her children, with water containers. One of her sons died from chronic diarrhoea and one of her daughters died of malaria, Roumtenga, province of Non-Gremasson, Burkina Faso. (WaterAid/Germain Kiemtoghe)

‘Sanitation and hygiene force people to improve health, social and economic development around the world. If you have no sanitation and clean water, it is impossible to achieve other development goals’, says Chris Williams, the Executive Director of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. ‘We must act now.’

Find out more about WaterAid: http://www.wateraid.org/uk

As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2013/11/19/un-toilet-day-sanitation-millennium-development-goals/