World Toilet Day

 World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day (WTD) is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without "safely managed sanitation" and around 673 million people practice open defecation. UN  Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all". In particular, target 6.2 is to "End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene". When the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 was published, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, "Today, Sustainable Development Goal 6 is badly off track" and it "is hindering progress on the 2030 Agenda, the realization of human rights and the achievement of peace and security around the world". World Toilet Day exists to inform, engage and inspire people to take action toward achieving this goal. The UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day in 2013, after Singapore tabled the resolution (its first resolution before the UN's General Assembly of 193 member states). Prior to that, World Toilet Day had been established unofficially by the World Toilet Organization (a Singapore-based NGO) in 2001.

School children in Germany running the "Urgent Run" to celebrate World Toilet Day 2014

Celebrating World Toilet Day 2015 in Pakistan 



Impact

The World Toilet Day campaign and related publications reach millions of people through social media, dedicated websites and other channels, like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.  Over 100 events in 40 countries were registered on the World Toilet Day website in both 2016 and in 2017.  In 2017, the hashtag #WorldToiletDay had a maximum potential reach of over 750 million people on Twitter. In 2018, the maximum potential reach increased by 15%,compared to 2017; the online activity and authors also increased by 12% and 22% compared to 2017, respectively (according to Wikipedia).

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