We have a global sanitation crisis – and its not just because of lack of toilets
Today marks World Toilet Day – an official United Nations international observance day to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve SDG6, safe water and sanitation for all.
For those of you reading this, you will most likely never have faced an issue in accessing a toilet. Perhaps once or twice during an adventurous holiday or being caught short during a long motorway journey, but by and large it’s something that you take for granted. In fact, it’s something you expect – in your home, restaurant, office or workplace, on trains and at railway stations. There would be a public outcry if we had no toilets. But this is not the case for the 2.3 billion people who still lack access to basic sanitation or the 900 million people who still defecate in the open. The people who are still suffering in silence.
Alarmingly, this is resulting in over 700 children under the age of five dying from preventable diseases every single day. Diseases that could be stopped with adequate sanitation and hygiene. And, until that number reaches zero, we simply cannot rest.
The solution to this crisis may seem obvious. The world simply needs more toilets, right? Not quite. Building more toilets is absolutely part of the solution, but only part. What we’ve learnt over the years is that the issue goes much deeper than just infrastructure. Put simply, a toilet is only worthwhile for as long as it stays clean and usable. That’s why driving behaviour change, particularly on toilet maintenance, is the other and equally crucial part of the solution.
One of Unilever’s most established Brands with Purpose – Domestos – has been working on this issue since 2012. With one in three schools around the world not having a usable toilet, Domestos recognised the need to change this. A lack of toilets at school means distraction, discomfort and poor student health, or even children skipping class altogether.
That’s why Domestos has been on an ‘unstoppable’ mission to help schools get clean safe toilets. Through the ‘Cleaner Toilets, Brighter Futures’ programme and partnership with UNICEF, more than 16 million people have gained access to a safe, well-maintained toilet. Crucially the mission is also empowering janitors, teachers and the rest of the school to manage the facilities in a more productive and sustainable way.
To help tackle this behaviour change issue, we have also set up a dedicated programme in India – the 21-day Swacchata (cleanliness) curriculum – which teaches children about the importance of sanitation and hygiene in a fun and engaging way. The programme has now been rolled out through government partnerships and our Swacchata Doot programme, which sees 5,000 Hindustan Unilever employees volunteer as ambassadors to help improve hygiene, sanitation and nutrition in schools. The programme has reached over 2.7 million people to date. And better yet, it is an open-source model, so any business can adopt the approach and roll it out to employees.
Beyond the work around school toilets, we also need to fundamentally rethink the system. We need new models in places where the infrastructure is yet to be established. That’s why, five years ago, we started to explore how an integrated, business-led approach to increasing access to toilets could generate long-term business growth, thereby incentivising private investment in sanitation infrastructure and maintenance. And given the multidisciplinary buy-in required by this novel approach to tackling the sanitation crisis, we co-founded the Toilet Board Coalition, a business-led partnership and platform with the ambition of accelerating the ‘sanitation economy’. In other words, creating business value from human waste by supporting a series of sanitation enterprises that have the potential to become self-sustaining by providing safe toilets to those who need it most.
As UN Water notes, a toilet is not just a toilet, it’s an opportunity-maker, a dignity-provider, a lifesaver. Together, we all need to prioritise SDG6 – and help make it a reality, not a goal.