World Toilet Day (WTD) is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and around 673 million people practice open defecation. Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. In particular, target 6.2 is to “End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene”. When the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 was published, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Today, Sustainable Development Goal 6 is badly off track” and it “is hindering progress on the 2030 Agenda, the realization of human rights and the achievement of peace and security around the world”.
World Toilet Day exists to inform, engage and inspire people to take action toward achieving this goal. The UN General Assembly declared World Toilet Day an official UN day in 2013, after Singapore had tabled the resolution.
Toilets are important because access to a safe functioning toilet has a positive impact on public health, human dignity, and personal safety, especially for females. Sanitation systems that do not safely treat excreta (feces) allow the spread of disease. Serious soil-transmitted diseases and waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery and schistosomiasis can result.
The photos shown on the 2 posters are taken from the Hammam of Ai Yiannis in Larnaca, where, at the moment, it hosts the exhibition «Water – The Great Affirmation» curated by Haris Karagiannis (Duration: November 8-25, 2023). We thank Mr. Charis Karagiannis and the Municipality of Larnaca for the permission to access the space as well as Mike Asprou for the photography and the design and editing of the graphics. The entire presentation is based on the official United Nations “World Toilet Day” promotion criteria.
