Talkin' 'bout Toilets

When is the last time you considered it a privilege to use a toilet? We don't often stop to think about it. We have toilets in our homes, our schools, our offices, our parks, our shopping malls. Hardly something we would consider a privilege. In fact, we consider it an inconvenience if we have to walk too far to reach the bathroom.

Consider, however, that more than 2.6 billion people in the world live without access to proper toilet facilities. Lack of proper toilet facilities and sanitation kills 1.8 million people per year through diarrhoeal diseases that are mainly blamed on inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Not having access to a toilet is more than an inconvenience, therefore. It is literally a matter of life and death.

Last week, on 19th November, it was World Toilet Day. Last week was also the start of the UN's International Year of Sanitation. Both have been declared in order to highlight the often unspoken need for sanitation in many places around the world. It's worth remembering when we next use the toilet and flush without thinking that there are many for whom it would be an unspeakable privilege to be able to do so.