World Toilet Day 2020

 Today is World Toilet Day.

This is a day marked by the United Nations' to celebrate and raise awareness on sustainable sanitation. Sustainable Development Goal 6 calls for "clean water and sanitation for all", with SDG 6.2 particularly focusing on "Sanitation and hygiene". 

Why?

It is estimated that approximately 4.2 billion people lack access to safe sanitation globally, and of these, 673 million practice open defecation. This is a great cause for concern, given how sanitation is linked to our health and dignity. Poor sanitation is associated with the transmission and spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and Polio. Recent experiences from Covid-19 have also shown the world the importance of good sanitation facilities for preventing the spread of infectious diseases. In addition, poor sanitation may result in loss of education, especially for girls; and increase the risk of sexual assault.  

Image of a dry diversion toilet showcased at the Sustainable sanitation, waste and water management conference 2018 in Cape Town.

This Year's Theme

The theme of World Toilet Day 2020 is "Sustainable sanitation and climate change". A proper toilet is connected to a sanitation system that collects, transports and treats human waste. Most countries use combined sewer systems to collect wastewater from residential/ industrial/commercial areas to the water treatment plants. These systems are under threat from climate change, such as flooding, drought and rising sea levels. These events are becoming more frequent and more extreme, posing a high risk to the functioning of different parts of the sanitation system. Toilets, sewer pipes and tanks, treatment plant can easily be damaged, which may lead to overflows of raw sewage into wells, rivers and food crops, posing a public health hazard. There is, therefore, an urgent need for building resilient sanitation systems. 

What Role Can you play?

1. Smart Innovations: 

A sustainable sanitation system means providing a  reliable system that can safely collect the faeces,  dispose of and treat them, and facilitate safe reuse. 

• Water-efficient: Toilets use a lot of water for flushing. A regular toilet can use between 5 and 15 litres of water (usually potable) per flush. A sustainable and smart sanitation innovation means a toilet that uses as little water as possible to flush out the waste. Since toilet flushing doesn't require high-quality potable water, there is a need to invest in a water reuse system or connect the toilet to a rainwater harvesting system. Recent smart sanitation innovations are trying to separate urine and faeces using a urine diversion dry toilet. However, more work needs to be done to make it financially sustainable and socially acceptable.
• Energy efficiency: Most sanitation systems are energy-intensive: therefore, a smart innovation will focus on building an energy-efficient system and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. There is also a possibility of using biogas from human waste to produce greener energy.

2. Rethink, Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

There are different processes involved in the sanitation cycle, all providing an opportunity for rethinking, reducing, reusing, or recycling. 

• Rethink before practising open defecation or defecating on the floor. Do your part to keep the sanitation facilities clean. Also, Rethink before ignoring a burst sewer pipe in your neighbourhood; report it to the suitable authorities as soon as possible.
• Reduce unnecessary flushing and the amount of water you use for toilet flushing. Invest in a low-flush toilet or a dual flush system. During the rain season, harvest some rainwater and use it to flush the toilet. 
• Reuse: Collect water from the dishwasher or washing machine and re-use it to flush the toilet. You can also connect your washbasin to the toilet water tank so that water can be collected and used for flushing after someone has used the washbasin.
• Recycle: at a bigger scale, biogas from human waste can be captured and used to produce energy. Recent studies have also been looking at producing charcoal briquettes using human waste. On the other hand, urine is reported to have a lot of nutritional benefits. Where urine diversion toilets are used, urine has been used to produce liquid fertilizer, and it is reported to provide an excellent source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to plants. The options are limitless!

3. Invest and support sanitation initiatives

This could be through raising awareness in your community or provide funding for research purposes etc. 

From the points highlighted above, it is clear that everyone has a role to play in the sanitation game. Let us come together and pledge ourselves to create more solutions for a better future.

SANITATION FOR ALL BY 2030!

$5 Emergency NanoCarbon Water Filter - DIY Build Instructions

DIY LOW COST WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Water quality is a big concern in many areas. Many users are increasingly relying on water from hand dug wells or surface rivers, which is of poor quality. It is always advisable to treat your water before use. Above is a link to a Youtube  video that shows how to make a three bucket filter and purifier for making almost any water safe to drink, using no to low cost materials and basic tools.