World Toilet Day is an official United Nations International observance day set on every 19th of November yearly. This international day observance is a date usually set by a major organization or government to commemorate a public health or ethical cause of importance. The motion of this day was to inspire action to tackle global sanitation crisis. Worldwide statistics indicates that 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and around 673 million people practice open defecation and 3.4 billion people were living without access to safe toilets. World Toilet Day exists to inform, engage and inspire people to take action towards achieving Sustainable Development goal 6 which states “Clean Water and Sanitation: End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene”.
The Theme for this year’s World Toilet Day commemoration was “Accelerating changes, toilet for all, everyone’s responsibility. The overall World Toilet Day Campaign was to mobilize the community, civil society, School children, and the general public to participate in this campaign through public sensitization and other modules.
The World Toilet Day was commemorated with public education at Aputuogya D/A JHS school, the market women and the populace. For a wider coverage a team of Assembly Staff and the Environmental Health Unit walked through the principal street after empowering over 100 school children on the importance of owning a clean and safe toilet facility. Over 500 people were educated through personal interactions, a float and the use of a public address system (microphone). The sensitization focused on what open defecation is, its effect on human health and the need of having a toilet facility and maintaining it hygienically.
