Potty Talk: Why Toilets Matter
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Credit: Ann Weru/IRIN2.5 billion people worldwide still do not have access to proper toilets, the majority of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Pictured: A bucket toilet in a home in Wajir town. Wajir residents have to grapple with inadequate sanitation and poor latrine coverage.
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Credit: Eva-Lotta Jansson/WaterAidToilets are a sanitation and a safety issue: 1 in 3 women lack access to safe toilet. Of these, 526 million women have no choice but to go to the toilet out in the open, according to WaterAid.
Pictured: Pascoa Maulate at the swamp where she goes to the toilet, Manhaua, Quelimane, Zambezia, Mozambique.
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Credit: Sue Valentine/AllAfricaEvery day, around 2,000 mothers lose a child due to diarrhoea caused by lack of access to safe toilets and clean water.
Pictured: Women and children at toilets and washpoint in upgraded informal settlement, South Africa.
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Credit: New VisionA lack of sanitation puts women at risk of disease, shame, harassement, and even attack. In many areas without proper sanitation, women risk rape when they try to reach a public toilet. Many cannot go to the bathroom at night because it is too dangerous.
Pictured: A woman cleans a toilet in Makindye West division, Kampala.
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Credit: Gates FoundationA new poll commissioned by WaterAid reveals that 40% of women in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria have no toilets and are forced to defecate outside. A quarter of these had either first- or second-hand experience of sexual harrassement, a threat of violence, or actual assault in the last 12 months.
Pictured: A farmer carries firewood in Oloki village of Nigeria.
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Credit: Lauren Everitt/AllAfricaWomen and girls without toilets spend 97 billion hours every year looking for a place to go. Decent toilets could make their lives safer and easier.
Pictured: A toilet in Kenya's Mukuru slum.
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Credit: enews channelToilets can also be political. Many people in South Africa's townships still lack access to proper toilets, and many feel the current state of public toilets are a humiliating holdover from Apartheid. Some activists have taken to bringing human waste into the city and dumping it outside government offices in protest.
Pictured: Men dumping human waste on the steps of Western Cape Legislature in South Africa in protest against portable toilets.
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Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaAccording to WaterAid, at the current rate of progress, it will be over 165 years before Sub-Saharan Africa meets its sanitation Millenium Development target, and another 350 years before it achieves universal access.
Pictured: Refuse by the riverside next to the a public toilet.
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Credit: Gates FoundationIt's not all bad news: Since 1990, around 900 women and girls have gained access to safe sanitation facilities, while over a billion have gained access to clean drinking water.
Pictured: Sanergy's "Fresh Life" toilet campaign is working to build and scale a new, safer sanitation infrastructure in the slums of Nairobi.
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Credit: Michael Hanson/Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationThere are many organizations working on reinventing the toilet and on raising awareness about the world's sanitation issues. The UN designated November 19 as world toilet day. Pictured: Researchers from the National University of Singapore develop a toilet that uses biological charcoal (biochar) to dry and combust feces. The heat generated will be used to extract water from urine by boiling it under pressure.
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Credit: Gates FoundationPictured: Young boys pose in front of a latrine in Venceremos village. This village in the Gondola district is open defecation free (ODF), which means every household has a functional latrine. 1.8 billion people still lack safe sanitation resources.
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