World Toilet Day (19 November)

If there’s one thing that unites humanity, it’s the call of nature. But depending on where we live, it’s not always possible to dispose of our bodily waste safely and responsibly.

Rehabilitation of schools and toilets in Abidjan. UN Photo/Patricia Esteve

Top facts

The global sanitation crisis is reflected in the following facts, according to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):

• Around 60% of the global population – 4.5 billion people – either have no toilet at home or one that doesn't safely manage excreta.

• 869 million people worldwide practise open defecation and have no toilet facility at all.
• 1.8 billion people use an unimproved source of drinking water with no protection against contamination from faeces.
• Globally, 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.
• Only 39% of the global population (2.9 billion people) use a safely-managed sanitation service, that is, excreta safely disposed of in situ or treated off-site.
• Combined with safe water and good hygiene, improved sanitation could prevent around 842,000 deaths each year.

By 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG #6, aim to reach everyone with sanitation, and halve the proportion of untreated wastewater and increase recycling and safe reuse.

For that to be achieved, we need everyone’s poo to be contained, transported, treated and disposed of in a safe and sustainable way. Today, for billions of people around the world, sanitation systems are either non-existent or ineffective and, consequently, progress in health and child survival is seriously undermined.