World Toilet Day- Thursday 19 November
19 November 2015 10:47
Thursday 19 November is World Toilet Day, an officially recognised United Nations Day intended to raise awareness of the fact that 2.4 billion people – one third of all the people on earth – still do not have access to a safe place to go to the toilet. Women are particularly badly affected by this. The fact that so many have no safe place to go to the toilet also leads to serious problems regarding hygiene and disease, to say nothing of the risk of abuse that women face.
Frank Stewart, Chair of WaterAid in Northern Ireland, said: ‘‘We all appreciate the value of a clean, safe place to go to the toilet. However, the fact that one third of the world’s population don’t have access to a toilet should make everyone stop and think.
‘‘Water and effective sanitation are two things everyone in the world should have access to – can you imagine not having a toilet? It’s unthinkable for us, but a fact of life for far too many people.
Together, we can change this, and ensure clean, safe toilet facilities for billions of people.’’
NI Water is proud to support the work of the international charity WaterAid, which works with some of the world’s poorest communities to provide clean, safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. You can get involved too – while we may not have to queue for the loo very often here, you can certainly ‘spend a penny’ and donate to WaterAid to help make the dream of sanitation and hygiene for all a reality. Your donation this World Toilet Day will help support 1.25 billion women around the world who are at risk every day from disease, harassment and even violence simply because they don’t have the use of safe toilet facilities.
They can’t wait any longer.
To make a donation, please visit www.wateraid.org or telephone 0845 6000 433.