World Toilet Day, an annual United Nations observance held on 19 November, aims to raise awareness about the global sanitation crisis and the urgent need for safe toilets for everyone, everywhere.

Across Africa, an estimated 779 million people lack basic sanitation services like toilets, 208 million still practice open defecation. World Toilet Day helps put sanitation on the agenda.

African Development Bank Group Director for Water Development and Sanitation, Mtchera Johannes Chirwa, shares five things to know about toilets and sanitation development in Africa.

1. To accelerate Africa's development we must realize that sanitation solutions cut across countless areas of daily life

The theme "Sanitation for a Changing World" for World Toilet Day resonates in Africa, where rapid urbanization, population growth, and climate change are putting increasing pressure on sanitation systems. Changing environments also mean new health challenges - and a lack of sanitation can impact many aspects of life in Africa.

Unsafe sanitation spreads cholera, typhoid, and other diseases. Investing in adaptable, inclusive sanitation protects public health and upholds dignity for men, women, girls, and vulnerable groups -- especially as populations and risks increase.

With safe, adequate toilets in schools, especially for young women during menstruation, attendance and retention improve.

In public health, polluted or unclean water sources can lead to the spread of water-borne diseases. Safely manged sanitation solutions like better toilets and sanitation mean less disease.

Sewage sludge, a mud-like residue resulting from wastewater treatment that contains organic matter and nutrients, can be used in agriculture - helping farmers grow more food.

2. The "S" in AHWS is not silent

In Africa, sanitation and toilets are often overlooked within the broader water development agenda. Investments and policies in the water sector have historically focused primarily on providing clean drinking water, while the equally vital issue of safely managing human waste receives less attention.

As a result, millions of Africans - particularly those living in informal urban settlements - still lack access to safe, hygienic toilets.

At the African Development Bank's Water Development and Sanitation Department, also known by the acronym "AHWS" - the "S" for "sanitation" is not silent. The Bank is addressing the attention and investment gap for sanitation through initiatives and programs that in the last decade alone, have delivered improved sanitation to 33 million people.

For example, in Angola, our Institutional and Sustainability Support to Urban Water Supply and Sanitation project boosted access to water and sanitation services to

1.5 million people. In Sumbe, a city south of capital Luanda, the project invested in providing about a hundred demonstration latrines in vulnerable communities where defecating in the open spaces was the norm. This investment came back threefold, with the community self-building an additional 301 latrines.

Sustained progress to invest in sanitation requires a cultural and institutional shift - recognizing toilets and sanitation are fundamental for health, human development, and economic resilience across Africa.

Click and watch to learn more about the Bank's sanitation services work in Angola.

3. Treating and recycling what Africa flushes can benefit Africa's economies and food systems

Recycling wastewater provides the continent with environmental, economic, and social benefits. Recycled wastewater can irrigate crops, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, allowing farmers to grow more food even when rainfall is low. This supports livelihoods and strengthens food security.

For example, the Bank's support for the Abu Rawash Wastewater Treatment Plant in Egypt - which treats more than 1.6 million cubic meters of wastewater daily - is providing reliable water for tree farmers and other agricultural purposes, as well as sludge for fertilizer for crops.

Across the continent, crops that tolerate reuse water like wheat, barley, maize and sunflower can benefit from recycled and treated wastewater.

4. A rebooted Bank financing window will bring more toilets to Africans in urban areas

The African Development Bank-hosted African Water Facility - the only project preparation and promotion facility solely dedicated to water and sanitation in Africa - recently announced a sanitation financing window that will bring more toilets to Africa's urban residents not served by conventional sewer systems. The African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative advocates for city-wide inclusive sanitation for equitable, safe, and sustainable sanitation services for all people in a city, regardless of income, location, or social status. The initiative also focuses on the entire sanitation service chain - from containment and emptying, to transport, treatment, and safe reuse or disposal - under strong city-level planning, regulation, and accountability.

The African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative, a reboot of the African Urban Sanitation Investment Fund, uses grants and technical assistance to prepare projects and develop market capacity. Over the next ten years, the initiative aims to provide 15 million people with safely managed sanitation services and attract $7 billion in additional investments.

5. African innovation and community champions key to rural sanitation success

The Bank's Transforming Rural Livelihoods in Western Zambia project symbolizes how supporting "community champions" to convince villagers to build improved latrines can improve - even save - lives.

Champion Beaty Matonrnola, a 30-something mother of two, persuaded almost 90% of her village's 55 households to adopt safer and improved sanitation practices. She's one of more than 500 Community Champions in the country's Western Province who were recruited to stop open defecation and improve hygiene education in 16 rural districts.

We learned that the sandy, brittle soil of western Zambia is not suitable for traditional pit latrines - which can collapse after just a few weeks of use! Champion community engagement and innovation discovered that the walls of a biodegradable, two-meter-long woven basket inserted into the pit before it is covered in concrete can delay collapse and keep the toilet from sending its user tumbling deep in waste.

The program reported "a sharp drop" in incidences of water-borne diseases. The $34 million program that included $4.1 million in a Bank grant also provided community champions with cell phones to send weekly data updates on the 'defecation-free' status of their villages in real time.

Africa has the innovation and will to achieve greater sanitation for all. On World Toilet Day, we urge African governments, communities and global partners to think long-term: recycling wastewater, reusing nutrients, and investing in sanitation systems and programs that are sustainable, impactful and economically viable "for a Changing World."