Almost half of world population lacks access to clean toilet

By Guc Gonel

ISTANBUL (AA) – Around 3.6 billion people all around the world use unhealthy and dangerous toilets not befitting the human dignity, according to recent reports by UNICEF and WHO.

Singaporean businessmen Jack Sim, seeing that everyone did not have access to this basic need, abandoned his successful business career and founded World Toilet Organization in 2001 to provide healthy toilets for everyone across the globe.

The organization offers training to access clean and safe toilets and holds events to create awareness, and it designated Nov. 19 as World Toilet Day. The count of its members rapidly rose and the UN officially acknowledged the day as of 2013.

The data available at UNICEF and WHO suggest that 3.6 billion people do not have access to hygienic, safe, and personal toilets connected to a sewer system through which the waste is eliminated.

On a global scale, the sewage mixes with potable water consumed by at least 2 billion people, killing more than 700 children younger than 5 years old from diarrhea due to unhealthy water and unhygienic toilets.

Oliver Schmoll, a program manager at the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, said the UN General Assembly's resolutions in 2010 and 2015 defined access to potable water and sanitation as a human right.

It is a legal right for everyone to have access to hygienic, safe, private, and affordable toilets, Schmoll noted, saying the goal was to put an end to vulnerable populations' use of open toilets, especially that of women and children.

According to Schmoll, there are problems related to access to toilets all around the world, including the WHO Europe Region where some one-third of the population, corresponding to 279 million, were still deprived of safe toilets and services of sanitation.

The WHO official further noted that the lack of hygiene in toilets leads to a variety of diseases, including diarrhea, COVID-19, dysentery, typhoid fever as well as helminth infections.

Many NGOs, including the Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), have long been working to extend a hand to people without access to water and toilet.

Hasan Aynaci, the deputy head of the IHH who is in charge of foreign relations of the organization, said access to water has become more difficult due to factors such as drought, wars, clashes, and COVID-19, causing a variety of diseases and pandemics.

The IHH is aware that solving problems related to hygiene and toilet for people displaced due to conflicts is of crucial importance, he said, adding that the foundation opened over 10,000 water wells in 41 countries so that the needy would not be further victimized.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas in Ankara