Today is World Toilet Day...

Have you ever heard of World Toilet Day? Well, neither had I until a few weeks ago so I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you about it. Seems interesting enough!

November 19th was declared 'World Toilet Day' in 2001 by 17 toilet associations (never heard of them before!) around the world. Since then, there has been an annual World Toilet Summit and many other regional conferences. This years WTD will launch the 2008 International Year of Sanitation (IYS), declared by the UN.

"WTD is a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis." The theme for this year is “TOILETS FOR ALL”. Can you imagine life without a toilet? I suppose it is something I take for granted, because for 40% of the world’s population, this is reality. Here are some facts:

* 2.6 billion people do not have somewhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet.
* On average, a person visits the toilet 2500 times a year, meaning you spend about 3 years of your life on the toilet.
* One gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs.
* Suppression of urination due to dirty toilets can lead to urinary tract diseases. In order to avoid visting public toilets, some people refrain from drinking and suffer dehydration.
* The simple act of washing hands with soap and water after going to the toilet can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%.
* Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.
* Safe disposal of children's faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40% in childhood diarrhoea.
* There are many people without a toilet yet so many names for them: loo, powder room, lavatory, outhouse, convenience, bathroom, gents, garderobe, necessary, women's room, restroom, potty, privy, the smallest room, cloakroom, latrine, place of easement, water closet (WC), throne room, and more...

Think about (and if you can, help) the 2.6 billion people out there, who have never used a toilet in their life!

Sources: www.wateraid.com, www.ehproject.org, BBC news, World Toilet Organisation