Weekly Blog - 13 November 2023 - World Toilet Day
World Toilet Day
This Sunday 19 November is World Toilet Day. To many people it may seem strange that the world chooses to annually mark the importance of anything so seemingly mundane as a toilet. But for billions of people across the developing world in Africa, Asia and Latin America it is no laughing matter. Lack of safe, clean sanitation is a real killer. More than 3.5 billion people, 44% of the total population of the world, lack access to a safe toilet. Some 419 million of these still practice open defecation. The dangerous hygiene and disease this breeds leads to the death of over 1000 children under the age of 5 every day. The crucial importance of providing safe, clean toilets and sanitation is one of the major indicators that Arise looks at in our 4 Shifts Report, to track the progress of reducing and eliminating extreme poverty around the world. The level of access to these facilities has actually improved dramatically over recent decades, but it still has a long, long way to go. The UN estimates that progress needs to be accelerated fivefold in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target of safe toilets and water for all by 2030. No wonder they have designated the theme for this year’s World Toilet Day as ‘Accelerating Change’.[1]
Such enormous statistics make it easy to forget the real people that lie behind every one. Habitat for Humanity tells the story of just one of those people, Admas Stefanos, a 45-year old mother of four living in Woreda 8, a community in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More than 40,000 people live in the community, which has grown up in a ramshackle way, with houses built on any patch of available land, often in an unsafe way. Admas’ home is near a river, the roof leaks when it rains, and the river floods, weakening the foundations, and pooling on the floor. “Some houses are just not appropriate for humans”, says Tegene Gemuchu, a local community coordinator. Admas has lived in Woreda 8 for over 30 years without a toilet. She and her children walk to the local river and dig a hole because they have no toilet. “We would go to the river because the water can wash away our dirt. There were no toilets in the area”, she says.[2]
4 Shifts to end extreme poverty
Organisations like Habitat for Humanity do amazing work to help people like Admas. However, to truly ensure all people everywhere have access to safe sanitation and clean water, the world must address and end the underlying problem of extreme poverty which drives this lack of access. Ultimately that is something that only governments can do. As Christians we know that such heart-breaking extreme poverty is never what God wants to see. As the Bible says, “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God” (Prov 14: 31). But what actions can the world most effectively take to end the extreme poverty that leads to lack of access to safe toilets and sanitation? Arise’s 4 Shifts Report and Campaign looks at what the Bible tells us, and all the lessons from history indicate, works best to reduce and end extreme poverty. It finds that two key shifts are essential. 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. 2) They can then tax these to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare, education and access to clean water and sanitation to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. All nations that have developed successfully have followed this route, and the international community should do all it can to support other nations to take the same approach.
Campaigning for developing country governments to adopt these policies and approaches, and for developed country government to support them through aid, technical support, favourable trade and international policy conditions, and in multiple other ways, is the most effective way to reduce and end extreme poverty and provide access to safe sanitation and clean water for every person in the world. So let’s celebrate World Toilet Day, and consider getting involved and signing up with Arise’s 4 Shifts Campaign.
Find out more
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a fair and green global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report. And for the bigger picture of how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, check out the Arise Manifesto. This is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world.
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[1] World Water Day 2023: Accelerating Change, UN Water, (25 Sep 2023), https://www.unwater.org/news/world-toilet-day-2023-accelerating-change
[2] Water and Sanitation Programmes in Ethiopia, Habitat for Humanity, https://www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk/blog/2020/04/ethiopia-wash-programme-development/