Toilets save lives, because human waste spreads killer diseases. Lis: I used to work in childhood education in lower economic countries and one of the biggest issues with girls attending school much less than boys, was the lack of toilets. Girls didn’t have private places to go, nor manage their periods. The same problem occurred with female identifying teachers. It’s unbelievable what an impact toilets have on education.
How does that relate to the environment? Let’s take our region in Cambodia earlier this year in the middle of a devastating drought likely exacerbated by climate change. We ran out of water which meant no water for the toilets. Which meant less girls at school. Other weather extremes affect this too. Floods can pose a real problem for contaminating water sources.
In industrialized countries, we probably tend to flush too much. There’s the whole ‘if it’s yellow, let it mellow’ movement for example.
And lastly, toilet paper tends to be pretty unfriendly to the environment. Wrapped in plastics and often made from unsustainable sources. None of the solutions are perfect of course but we’re fans of @whogivesacrap who tackle both these issues and providing toilets in places that need them!
World Toilet Day is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. This year’s theme is Leaving no one behind. Whoever you are, wherever you are, sanitation is your human right. Today, 4.2 billion people still live without safely managed sanitation. It’s something we have to fix (Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 calls for universal sanitation).
