By Xuefei Chen Axelsson
Stockholm, Nov. 8(CED) — The World Toilet Day is celebrated each year on November, 19.
The theme of World Toilet Day 2022 is ‘Sanitation and Groundwater’.
This year, World Toilet Day focuses on the impact of the sanitation crisis on groundwater.
Inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes and soil, polluting the water resources under our feet. However, this problem seems to be invisible. Invisible because it happens underground. Invisible because it happens in the poorest and most marginalized communities.
The key messages:
1. Safe sanitation protects groundwater. Toilets that are properly sited and connected to safely managed sanitation systems, collect, treat and dispose of human waste, and help prevent human waste from spreading into groundwater.
2. Sanitation must withstand climate change. Toilets and sanitation systems must be built or adapted to cope with extreme weather events, so that services always function and groundwater is protected.
3. Sanitation action is urgent. We are seriously off track to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030. With only eight years left, the world needs to work four times faster to meet our promise.
The UN water has called on governments, businesses and Non-governmental sectors to join hands to deal with this issue.
China has put up the slogan of toilet revolution in 1994. Since then, hundreds of thousands of toilets have been built and many toilets now even provide toilet paper and water.
It is great to see such a change and good for China which has lifted poverty for 700 million people. China has become a vanguard or leading country in improving people’s living standards.
China also holds high the UN banner in dealing with issues relating to food, water and toilets and many other issues.
For one in three people in the world, sanitation systems are either non-existent or ineffective. On November 19, join the movement to help raising awareness about this global issue.
Each year, the pS-Eau provides you with tools to help you in the organization of your own sensitization day.