Don't Forget The First Ever "World Toilet Day"

Think on tomorrow, November 19th, each time you use the toilet, john, loo, can, WC, khazi, privy, bathroom, throne, latrine, outhouse, washroom, etc etc etc.

"The sad reality is that one billion people still practice open defecation and 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation facilities."
Open defecation simply means squatting by the roadside, railway line, usually in full view of all the others doing the very same thing, day after day after day.


Dr. Chris Williams, executive director of the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), told IPS sanitation and hygiene are motors which drive health, social and economic development around the world.
“An environment that lacks sanitation and clean water is an environment where achieving other development goals is an impossible dream. The time to act is now,” he added.
In its campaign to help resolve the world’s sanitation crisis, the government of Singapore is partnering with the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), a Singapore-based NGO, founded in 2001, with 534 members, who are mostly local toilet associations.
WTO founder Jack Sim (known affectionately as “Mr Toilet”) will be at the United Nations to take part in the commemoration.

 The United Nations has a longstanding tradition of commemorating political milestones – like the abolition of the slave trade – or sustaining day-long vigils on controversial issues such as a ban on nuclear tests.
The annual events have covered a wide range of political, social and economic issues on a 24-hour timeline, including World Cancer Day, World Press Freedom Day, World Refugee Day, World AIDS Day, World Population Day and World Water Day.
But for some unaccountable reason, the United Nations continued to sidestep a growing problem facing over 2.5 billion people: lack of adequate sanitation.
So last July, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution, initiated by Singapore, to declare Nov. 19 “World Toilet Day,” the first-ever in the 68-year history of the United Nations.

Declaring a specified day doesn't make it happen of course. Altruistic as the goal may sound (all the various goals, in fact) within this capitalist system where everything has to show some profit somewhere, we won't be holding our breath for any measurable change any time soon. Maybe a better idea would be a world day of solidarity when we all commit to open defecation? That would certainly get results but probably not the desired ones. Roll on the socialist revolution!
JS

Full article here