NEW YORK, 24 July 2013 (UN News Service): In a bid to make sanitation for all a global development priority, the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday designated 19 November as World Toilet Day, urging changes in both behaviour and policy on issues ranging from enhancing water management to ending open-air defecation (forrette sin nødtørft i det fri).
Of the world’s seven billion people, six billion have mobile phones. However, only 4,5 billion have access to toilets or latrines – meaning that 2,5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have proper sanitation.
In addition, 1,1 billion people still defecate in the open. Adopting a new resolution, the Assembly urged UN Member States and relevant stakeholders to encourage behavioural change and the implementation of policies to increase access to sanitation among the poor, along with a call to end the practice of open-air defecation, which it deemed “extremely harmful” to public health.
“This new annual observance will go a long way toward raising awareness about the need for all human beings to have access to sanitation,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson following the Assembly’s action.
The resolution recognizes the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations play in raising awareness of this issue.
It also calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, and sewerage (kloakering) and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.
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