Toilet Day? Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, there is… On the 19th of November this year, a campaign was run to bring awareness to a global sanitation crisis.
We have all become accustomed to the creature comforts of modern day living in the UK and take for granted basic levels of sanitation, but a staggering 2.4 Billion (yes, billion) people around the world don’t have access to the most basic of toilet facilities. This has an impact on health and wellbeing and Toilet Day aims to bring awareness to the masses.
Why should you care?
Originally established by the World Toilet Organization in 2001, this day drives home the message that global sanitation levels are in a sorry state. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated November 19 as World Toilet Day, co-ordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners.
It has been adopted by 122 countries and at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the WTD became an official UN day
The spread of many diseases (e.g. soil-transmitted helminthiasis, diarrhea, schistosomiasis) and chronic malnutrition in children – which can be connected to a condition called environmental enteropathy – is directly related to exposure to human faeces.
Themed Approach
On the 19th of November each year, the campaign attempts to raise awareness by adjusting it’s slogans.
- In 2012, the slogan was “I give a shit, do you?”
- 2014: The theme was equality and dignity. The campaign strived to inspire action to end open defecation, and put spotlight on existing inequalities in access to sanitation and on risks of assault and violence against women and girls where sanitation access is poor.
- 2015: The theme was toilets and nutrition. In that year, World Toilet Day was promoted in social media (Twitter) via the #WeCantWait hashtag.
- 2016: The theme is “toilets and jobs”, just like for the World Water Day of that year
Legal Requirements
In the UK, we are accustomed to a basic level of hygiene, and in the case of businesses, we are legally required to provide adequate toilet facilities. We all know and respect establishments who provide the cleanest of toilet facilities (especially, when music is played for that extra touch of class on the throne 🙂 …. but equally, we have all experienced the ‘worst toilet’ where hygiene and facilities are poor, yet in most cases these poor facilities are far better than those who have no facilities at all!
SoClean Ethos
Our ethos as a company generally, is to promote the benefits of cleaning. This is prominent and consistent throughout all our marketing efforts. The fact is, cleaner facilities and better hygiene reduces illness and staff absence. Ultimately, cleaner facilities boost productivity and wellbeing. World Toilet Day shares the same belief and is tackling it on a global scale.
Hygiene Tweets
If you don’t follow us on Twitter, do so now here … We put out interesting facts and information to bring awareness to our clients and followers, regarding basic hygiene. Some of these facts are interesting, some are disgusting, but exposing the masses to information
Basic Hygiene is ESSENTIAL
Some recent facts we established, which are shocking but true
- CDC Researchers in London estimate that if everyone routinely washed their hands, a million deaths a year could be prevented
- Humans carry 1000 species of bacteria. There are more germs on your body than people in the United States
- A large percentage of foodborne disease outbreaks are spread by contaminated hands
- ALWAYS put the toilet lid down before flushing. It’s amazing how many people don’t and germs travel up to 6 feet per flush … (so imagine the implication, when there is NO toilet at all….)
- Study showed that significant quantities of microbes float around the bathroom for at least two hours after each toilet flush
- When you flush, germs from the toilet bowl can travel as far as six feet, landing on the floor, the sink and your toothbrush (Yuck!)
- According to the United Nations “Washing hands is the most cost-effective intervention for the worldwide control of disease
These are just a few of the facts we have identified which shock and horrify us, but unless we help spread the word (and not the germs) we won’t improve on basic hygiene.
