PHM-Exch> MEDIA STATEMENT: For World Toilet Day, 19 November 2012

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Bahram Ghazi <bghazi at ohchr.org>


*______________________*

*Of all places… a toilet*


GENEVA – “Eliminating inequalities can start in the most unlikely of
places: a toilet,” said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human
right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, on
World Toilet Day.  “Access to sanitation facilities around the world, more
than any other service, provides a window into the vast difference between
the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’”

“Every day, 7,500 people die due to a lack of sanitation, 5,000 of whom are
less than 5 years old. Every year, 272 million schooldays are missed due to
water-borne or sanitation-related diseases,” Ms. de Albuquerque recalled,
noting that more than one out of three people do not have access to
improved sanitation facilities, according to UN Millennium Development
Goals figures.

“Access to sanitation currently ranks as the most-off track of the
Millennium Goals, and one that will obviously not be met by 2015,” she
stressed, noting that enormous challenges remain despite the attention paid
in recent years to accelerating the pace of change for such appalling
reality.

The human rights expert drew special attention to the fact that one of the
most critical challenges is the high number of people still practicing open
defecation on a daily basis – over 1 billion, producing enough faeces to
fill a football stadium every day.

“Try to imagine yourself without toilets – no toilet in your workplace and
no toilet at home. Imagine you had to relieve yourself in the streets of
your city or town. Imagine yourself trying to find every single day a
quiet, secluded spot. Imagine the insecurity and indignity of the situation
– especially if you are a woman. And suppose you could smell excrement,
because your city had no money to build and maintain a proper sewer
system,” de Albuquerque asked. “This is the situation billions of people
face today – especially those who are most marginalized.”

Safe, sustainable and affordable access to a toilet is essential for the
well-being and rights of every human being. “This is not only about
ensuring the right to sanitation, but is also critical for the enjoyment of
numerous other rights, such as the right to health, the right to education,
the right to work and the right to lead a life in dignity,” the UN Special
Rapporteur highlighted.

“Those who do not have access to adequate sanitation are overwhelmingly
people living in poverty, and marginalised and excluded individuals and
groups,” she said, “but the UN Millennium Development Goals have not
provided a solution to resolve this gap in equality of access.”

In her view, “lack of sanitation will keep these same people sick, away
from school and work, victims of violence when trying to find a place to
hide to ‘do their business’ and not able to break the cycle of poverty and
exclusion in which they are trapped.”

In her latest report* to the UN General Assembly, Ms. de Albuquerque asks
for a post-2015 development agenda that once and for all aims at
eliminating discrimination and inequalities in access to water and
sanitation; an agenda that strives to ensure access to adequate sanitation
for all, prioritising available resources and devising new policies to
address the needs of those individuals and groups who are currently
excluded.

On World Toilet Day, the UN Special Rapporteur’s message is simple: “Giving
these people sanitation and hygiene, will be a fundamental step to allow
them to aspire to a better life. It is about a toilet, of all places.”

*(*)* Check Ms. de Albuquerque report to the UN General Assembly
(A/67/270). Short summaries in English, Spanish and French are also
available at:
*
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/WaterAndSanitation/SRWater/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx
*<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/WaterAndSanitation/SRWater/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx>
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